Strength Can't Be Measured
by Herbblade
Summary: When Tsunade has to make a tough decision, she chooses to send out the men of the Konoha 12. She has good reasons for keeping the kunoichi, but they decide that that's it. They'll become strong if it's the last thing they do! Full sum & pairings inside
1. Prologue

**Full Summary:** Sasuke can be recaptured. An epidemic hits Konoha. Tsunade makes a drastic decision and sends a large group to recover the Uchiha—all the males of the Konoha 11 (and Sai). She has good reasons for choosing the kunoichi to stay behind, but they vow to keep Konoha safe and grow strong. And to prove the entire village wrong. And when the guys come home will they discover that the kunoichi have become stronger than ever—just by protecting their home?

**Pairings:** SasuSaku, NejiTen, NaruHina, SaiIno, ShikaTema, GaaraOC

Italics are flashbacks or thoughts, depending on the situation. Use you common sense! During a flashback, thoughts will be normal text. Enjoy!

--

**Strength Can't Be Measured**

**Prologue**

--

A pink-haired girl sat on top of a high cliff, looking over a village as the sun set on the horizon across from her. Her feet dangled over the edge of the cliff, and down beneath them were giant faces etched into the stone. A light breeze teased the girl's short hair and she sighed softly.

A mask hung from her hip and was touching the ground lightly, its tiger's face staring into space.

The pinkette sighed again, her bright green eyes focused on nothing in particular.

The breeze picked up suddenly and formed a small whirlwind near her, but she didn't move a muscle. And then, as quickly as it had started, the whirlwind vanished and the breeze settled down, revealing another girl standing next to the pinkette where the mini-tornado had been.

She had long blonde hair pulled into a high ponytail and wore a black outfit similar to the first girl's. A mask hung at her waist as well, but its face resembled a viper's. She sat next to the first girl wordlessly.

A few seconds passed before the blonde spoke softly, "Tsunade decided to have a party. I don't know why, but she'll be looking for you to go and get supplies soon. You'd better watch so she doesn't turn you into the new Shizune, since the real one is on vacation... Finally…"

The first girl snorted.

The blonde laughed, "Oh, come on, Sakura! Loosen up! You should be taking every chance to relax—you found a cure and saved Kakashi! Not to mention everyone else! And now you're saving Konoha every day! Even Kakashi says you've never celebrated any of that properly."

The pinkette, appropriately named Sakura, sighed yet again. "I just can't stop thinking about them. All of them. There's no way to find them, so even now that the epidemic is over I can't join them… I'm useless again."

The blonde glared at her friend. "Don't say that! You are NOT useless! Remember when we were using every ninja as medics because we were so desperate? You're the one who put a stop to that!"

Sakura stared into space, remembering the time her friend had just described.

_Sakura wiped her forehead with the back of her hand quickly. "He's stabilized! Get him some fluids and bring in the next one!" Tenten leapt from her seat and grabbed the rail by the patient's feet on the stretcher, wheeling him out of the room quickly. Another shinobi Sakura didn't know wheeled another stretcher in just as quickly and skillfully before retreating to Tenten's vacated chair. _

_Across the room, Tsunade was going through the same ritual while Shizune read what would have once been classified information out loud._

_Between the sickness and the number of ninja it claimed, Tsunade had to be Hokage and med-nin at the same time. Ino was in the next room with another medic and the room past them held the next pair… Twenty four medics no longer seemed sufficient. Inuzuka Hana and the other vets were acting as nurses, while the nurses were bumped up to working side by side with the medics. Ordinary shinobi were the gophers, running everywhere all at once._

_Chaos reigned over Konoha. The only ninja not on duty at the hospital were on missions or sleeping like the dead. Tsunade had set up three shifts; every shift spending eight hours at the hospital, eight on missions, and eight sleeping. But as the epidemic spread, the shifts began to wear thin._

_Sakura wiped her forehead again. Normally she would have hated the heat of the room and the amount she was sweating, but it was suddenly her best friend. The first sign of the sickness was fever. You got cold, and then your temperature rose faster than normal fevers and soon you couldn't move. You broke out in sores, and then if they broke they leaked pus for an hour or so before it was covered up with a new sore. Being hot was a very good sign._

_It was the most disgusting sickness Sakura had ever heard of and it was unknown to everyone. All they could do was bandage the sores and stabilize temperature. For some people this worked, for others it didn't._

_The sickness moved erratically, showing no sign of being contagious but spreading like wildfire. _

_Sakura finished on her latest patient and called for the next one. She hardly looked at the stretcher as it was wheeled in, so when she got her first look at the patient he was directly below her._

_She nearly choked. "Kakashi-sensei! Not you too!"_

_She could see the small smile behind the mask. "Don't worry Sakura, this won't kill me. Besides, now that I'm sick I give you full leave to inspect my body and try antidotes on me. I trust you'll find something that works before my first sore pops." His smile grew and it hit Sakura that his temperature was barely above normal._

_He was letting them watch his sickness progress and use it to find a cure. "Sensei… I'll do my best sir!" Kakashi smiled proudly as Sakura's spine of steel inserted itself. She turned to the nin sitting in the chair. His ANBU mask hung from his weapons pouch, but he wore the same look as all the rest. The village was united by the sickness, but Sakura wondered how long it would last. "Go help Shizune and Tsunade." He nodded and went over to the women's sides, explaining quickly. _

_Tsunade looked up and Sakura nodded to her. The Hokage nodded back and took Shizune's scrolls from her, leaving the younger woman to take care of the patient. She hadn't had any sake in days but was doing her duty as Hokage. Sakura felt almost proud, except every spare moment the Hokage complained about the lack of sake._

_She turned her attention back to Kakashi. "So how do you feel right now?"_

"_Well for starters I don't feel like throwing up, which I usually do when I get a fever. Secondly my arms and legs feel stiff…" Sakura nodded and wrote it down quickly, thinking fast._

Well, Sakura had found a cure. It had been long after Kakashi's sore had surfaced and popped and oozed. That had been one of the hardest parts for Sakura—seeing people's bodies covered in sores that just got bigger and bigger until they broke. And seeing it on the body of her own teacher…

But she had figured it out. Tsunade had helped, and Ino had helped, but they both gave her full credit. Sakura wished they hadn't—she always felt like she should be able to do more. If she was _so great_ she could make that antidote, why couldn't she do anything else?

The blonde, the one and only Ino, was unaware of the pinkette's feelings though. She was looking forward to the party most likely. Sakura had always admired that trait in Ino; the ability to pick up and move on without looking back. After all that had happened, Ino wanted to party and maybe meet a cool guy.

Not Sakura; Sakura was lost in the boundary between living in the past and being completely severed from it. Neither of those meant she wanted to party. Her mind floated into another memory, not too long after the first one. The sad thing was that this one was worse.

_The Godaime Hokage rubbed her temples. She dismissed the exhausted jounin who was explaining Kakashi and Kurenai's absences. "I know, it's alright. You can leave now, go get some sleep." _

_He left and Tsunade sighed, placing her head in her linked hands. The blonde closed her hazel eyes for a precious three seconds before opening them again. "Uchiha Sasuke is in a vulnerable position. He has a team of four, including himself, so I am sending two four-man squads to bring him back. I assembled all of you because this will be a group made up of people from all of your cells and the other members deserve to know."_

_Naruto trembled in excitement, knowing he was going. Sakura bit her lower lip, preparing herself to attack Sasuke. Tsunade saw both reactions and sighed again._

"_The first squad will be lead by Hyuuga Neji and will be compromised of Rock Lee, Inuzuka Kiba and Aburame Shino." _

_Tenten's mouth fell open and Hinata gasped, but before either could say anything, Tsunade continued. "The second squad will be lead by Nara Shikamaru and will be made of Uzumaki Naruto, Akamichi Chouji, and Sai. I say the squads as separate groups but that won't be the case. You will be one group under Neji's lead but if you must you'll split into two cells. Now you all may speak."_

_Tenten was the first to say anything; Sakura and Ino hadn't recovered and Hinata wasn't about to say it the way Tenten wanted it said, "Lady Hokage, you're only sending the boys!! This is unfair; I'm no use in the hospital and there's no reason I shouldn't be helping on the battlefield!!"_

_Tsunade shook her head. "You four are taking this wrong; you haven't heard the full mission. You're not only finding Uchiha—you're going to have to try and convince him to come back to Konoha. Then once he actually agrees you'll wait six months for his probation before returning. And I doubt he'll say yes right away."_

"_But Tsunade, I should be there helping to get through to him!" Sakura's emerald eyes were beginning to flash, but it was hard to tell if it was with fury or sadness. _

"_Yes, you should be!" Sakura blinked at Tsunade's agreement. "It's this damn sickness though, I can't afford to lose either you or Ino or any other medic! And Tenten and Hinata are fighters, they won't give in to the epidemic and I need someone here to actually protect the village!"_

"_The boys are fighters too!"_

"_Why are you so eager to help the Uchiha, Tenten? You aren't close to him at all."_

"_It's the principal of the thing, ma'am." They all looked at Hinata, who blushed._

_The Hokage sighed. "I'm sorry girls, and Gai, but the principal doesn't matter. You're staying to help here." Shizune gently herded the four kunoichi out, giving the boys a warning look, just in case._

_The shinobi all filed out as well, going to pack for a long mission. Gai stayed behind. _

"_Lady Hokage let me go at least! I must look after my students and they will all need some guidance—"_

"_Gai. I know you trust and care for your students and all the rest, but you must let the trust take over and set them free for this mission. Besides, there are people here who will need your help and guidance more."_

Sakura hadn't known about Gai's request at first, but when she found out she felt both sympathy for the man and anger that Tsunade gave him such a nice little reason for staying behind.

No, the Haruno girl was staying behind because she was a _medic!_ The whole point of her training to be a medic was so she could go and help save Sasuke! The irony was horrible.

_Shizune took the kunoichi to the empty Ichiraku ramen stand. None of them said a word._

_It wasn't until they had ordered and been served that Shizune said, "You know she's making you stay because she trusts you. Especially you, Tenten. And Sakura, you have to stay to help all the sick and test Kakashi. And where would the hospital be without your organization, Ino? And Hinata… Tsunade knows that you will rise to the challenge and help your friends protect the village."_

_She paused to take a bite._

"_And I trust you all too. Don't let us down—try."_

Well; Ino, Hinata and Tenten had tried. Sakura had tried to try, but she didn't know if she had succeeded or not. She really wasn't as strong as the others. She'd thought she'd gotten over the little girl inside her who got depressed, but she clearly hadn't.

The only thing she had come up with was that she had to make sure there was a place for Naruto to bring Sasuke back to. She'd have to protect everyone and make them stronger…

That desire had slowly morphed into a burning passion. And somewhere along the line, she'd also decided to prove _both_ her male teammates wrong. You could get strong in Konoha, with the village's people supporting you.

That was what Haruno Sakura believed and lived by now. She didn't know if she'd lived up to her own expectations, but she had tried at least. And of all things, it was that that made her feel better.

She had tried.

--

Sakura and Ino both changed for Tsunade's party, Ino insisting they couldn't go in full ANBU gear. As the approached the building, gossiping for the first time in a long time, they were approached by another group of girls.

The one in front had brown hair and eyes, and her hair was pulled into twin buns for the first time in about a month. Sakura almost wanted to hug Tenten for that—she had set her buns aside out of necessity, and now they were going to a party and the first thing the brunette did was bring back her 'panda ears' (as Ino dubbed them).

Tenten flashed them a quick grin and Ino gave her a silent thumbs up.

The girl to Tenten's right had brown hair too, but dark blue eyes. Her hair was short, but a little longer than Sakura's, just barely passing her shoulders. Normally it was pulled back into a ponytail, but now it was down. She was smiling as well, taking in the scene and enjoying it immensely. Kaida was rocking on her heels, probably excited to find out what Tsunade had called this party for.

The last girl of the group was Hyuuga Hinata. She had long, dark indigo hair that she pulled into a high bun for missions but was now down and smooth. Her pearly white eyes had lost the scared look they'd carried for so long, but Hinata still didn't speak unless she knew what she was talking about. Sakura didn't know what it was exactly, but it wasn't shyness anymore.

They were her ANBU squad; her teammates, who'd gone through thick and thin with her and anchored her solidly to earth; her best friends.

They stood in a circle automatically, in no particular order, not saying anything.

Then Ino broke into the friendly silence by sticking her hand into the middle and (drama queen that she was) saying, "Yell 'party' on three! One…"

They stuck their hands in quickly and as Ino finished her countdown, yelled, "PARTY!" and broke the circle to go to the party.

Kaida was the next to speak, "So, just curious, but why did you decide we should do that?" Kaida was a few years younger than Sakura, Ino and Hinata; they didn't know exactly how old she was, and had risen through the ranks on sheer determination, if not skill. When the epidemic hit, she was a Chuunin and had been put with Hinata and Tenten for missions. Soon the five of them were inseparable and had gone the rest of the way to ANBU together.

"_Because,_ we've been so real-life-teamwork lately, we haven't just done something for the sake of doing it. I mean, that was a bonding experience that you can't get on the field."

Tenten laughed, but Hinata nodded. Kaida just rolled her eyes and sent Sakura a goofy look for no reason.

The party was like most other parties, lots of lights and music. Sakura spotted Kakashi at a table, being 'attacked' (as he called it) by young ninja who wanted to see his face. She distinctly heard some "pretty pretty pretty PPPLLLLLLLEEEEAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSEEEEE??"s. She grinned and followed her friends to a different area of the room. But just as the girls were finding a table to serve as a 'base,' the music stopped. A loud voice came over the crowd, "SIT DOWN!"

Everyone there recognized the voice as belonging to Mitrashi Anko, and they all sat down.

They could all see Anko now, and she swept a look across the crowd before continuing. "Much better. Now, I'm sure you're all wondering why you're here! Well, here's the Hokage to tell you, so listen up!"

Ino muttered something about Anko's 'skills' as an announcer and how Tsunade should give someone else the job next time. But she stopped as the Godaime Hokage took Anko's place and cleared her throat.

"If you'll all remember back to the first attack on Konoha by Orochimaru, you'll remember the one good thing that came from the aftermath… our peace treaty with Suna. Today is the fifth anniversary of that treaty, and the Kazekage and a group of his best ninja are here to celebrate it with us!"

Sakura looked over the crowd and finally saw that Gaara was indeed there, sitting at a table with about ten Suna nin.

Tsunade went on to tell everyone to have a good time, eyeing the sake all the while, before stepping into the crowd. The music came back on a few moments later and Ino rolled her eyes.

"It really has been five years since that treaty… I can't believe I'm eighteen now…" The blonde was oddly serious and Sakura felt the same astonishment. But the girls' talk shifted quickly, they entertained the idea of going shopping the next day after training, all being in desperate need of new clothes, even if they wouldn't admit it.

Sakura felt her friends' talk and optimism wash over her and couldn't help but feel at peace. Training and shopping… That didn't sound very bad at all.

--

Me: 2,982 words… Not bad for a prologue!

Gael: It's OK…

Meryl: Are you joking?? It's GREAT!

Me: … Due to Gaara actually being in this story, I had to find some new people to talk to. Behold: my brother and one of my RP characters. Hopefully they'll calm down as things go on… Also, this WILL NOT follow the manga plotline, since I don't have enough patience to wait and see how that goes… So this is slightly/very AU. Set sometime after Sasuke formed his team, but before Itachi died. Jiraiya and Asuma are dead, but not Itachi… It's hard to explain where this takes place, cuz I don't really know either. But judging by the characters' ages… gulp it's more AU than I thought it would be. Oh well…

Meryl: None of us own anything… Except the plot, mustn't forget that. We own THAT. And Kaida. As for the miraculous change of character on the part of our Uchiha friend… This is about the girls! The guys don't have the luxury to take forever with Sasuke, who in turn doesn't have the luxury to be an idiot forever. So, he's being re-Konoha-ized, deal with it.

Gael: Next chapter; we look at the girls' motives and relationships a little closer. Not quite to the action yet folks, but we're getting there! So stay tuned!


	2. 1 Life As The Leader of an ANBU Squad

**Strength Can't Be Measured**

**Chapter One: Life As The Leader Of An ANBU Squad**

--

Sakura laughed, the sound carrying out the store and over the loud market.

She couldn't help it—Ino had somehow found the tackiest store on the planet and they were trying on things just for the sake of doing it. Tenten had found a pair of pink, sequined, knee-high, stiletto boots that she was trying to talk Sakura into trying on (and adding to her ANBU outfit), and Hinata was being covered in glitter and Ino and Kaida tried out fairy wands in the costume area.

The pinkette finally took the wands away from Kaida and Ino, dusting Hinata's head off quickly and blackmailing Tenten into putting the boots back before herding them back into the market and towards a better clothes store.

Ino grumbled something about ANBU mother hens and drifted over to Tenten to discuss what they would do for lunch, seeing as Tenten had an odd knack for knowing and remembering how good or bad a restaurant was. Kaida and Hinata were cracking up as they discovered all the glitter in Hinata's hair.

"Maybe you should just leave it—it's kind of cool."

"No, I don't want all this coming out next time I shower."

Kaida snorted, "Good point, you're dad'd probably see all the glitter going down the drains and think it was someone trying to blow your house up with explosion powder or something."

Sakura grinned as she listened, knowing that Kaida didn't speak from experience, but enjoying how she made it sound like she did.

--

"OK, so today is check-up day. No real training, just making sure everything's in working order, then we'll go finish our shopping and get some shut eye. Tenten is going to check all our weapons over, Hinata's going to check our masks and hoods and such to make sure they're still Byakugan-proof, Kaida's fixing any scratches or dents on the masks, Ino's checking the rest of our clothes for damage, and I'm doing physical check-ups. Got it?"

The other four nodded to Sakura's orders, and she nodded back. "Right, Ino's up with me first, then Kaida. Hinata, you'll be last so you can finish and Kaida and Ino can work while you're with me. Tenten, you're after Kaida... And then Ino'll check me and we'll be done."

They nodded again and Ino stood up, dropping all the stuff the others would be working on before heading over to Sakura.

The green-eyed medic did what any doctor would do to a normal patient, only slightly adapted because it was an ANBU and because Sakura knew her patient inside and out. Ino passed her exam quickly, knowing what Sakura would do before the pinkette had to tell her.

The blonde left and was replaced by Kaida. As always, Sakura adjusted her thought process to remember Kaida was a little younger than her. If the girl had heard her thoughts, Sakura knew Kaida would have given her an it-doesn't-matter lecture, but Sakura could never help but remember the fact.

Kaida only took a little more time than Ino before passing, and went off, sending Tenten over to Sakura.

As she worked on the brunette, Sakura noticed again and again how little wear and tear there was on Tenten's internal organs. Even though Hinata had healed exceptionally well, Sakura could always feel the scar left by her fight with Neji when she was twelve.

Tenten had no such scars.

That almost made it worse for Sakura, knowing that Tenten had sparred with Neji for nearly five years, during his angry phase, good days and bad, every day, as he'd discovered what he could do, and he'd never hurt her like that. They had been close—insanely close. And Tenten had never shown the pain she must have felt at being left behind for three years, not seeing Neji for three years…

_She's stronger than I am…_ Sakura thought as she finished up.

"You're done, and you passed with flying colors."

"I'll send Hinata over."

With the sense of Tenten's scar-less organs still on her mind, Hinata's quiet little scar was more noticeable than usual, but everything else seemed fine to Sakura.

They all finished their jobs and packed up again. They separated to drop things back at their houses before meeting up again and shopping for anything they'd discovered needed replacing. Tenten bought her usual round of weapons and scrolls, and Ino continued her personal project 

to find _something_ to bind their outfits together. To show they were teammates—family—and that was that. Her current idea was an arm band, but Sakura vetoed it. Nothing that would give away the point of the masks and warn enemies as to who they were. When they split up to go home, Ino was deep in thought about possible matching jewelry.

When she got to her apartment, Sakura put her Leaf headband and ANBU mask next to her picture collection and sat down to read her book. But she found out pretty quickly that the story was at a slower point and she looked around, noticing the light catch on her headband, mask, and pictures. The central picture was the original Team Seven, the same picture in Naruto's long-empty room, the same one that looked over Kakashi's bed, and the same one they'd found face-down in Sasuke's abandoned house. Then there was one of her, Naruto, and Sai. They'd just been sitting at a booth in a restaurant, and someone had snapped a picture as they'd all laughed.

Her and Kakashi after she'd passed the Chuunin exams… Her, Tsunade, Shizune, Tonton and Ino after the epidemic was cured. The 'Medic Dream Team (and Mascot),' as Tsunade dubbed them… Hinata, Kurenai and her daughter at the little girl's second birthday party…

The five of them, no trace of ANBU gear anywhere, arms around each others' shoulders, taken by Tsunade in her office after she'd told them they were the new ANBU team.

Looking at the pictures, Sakura felt peaceful, and drifted off to sleep in her recliner chair.

--

Hinata shut the door to the main building of the Hyuuga compound and kicked off her shoes. Ever since she'd started getting stronger, the elders had started watching her in a different way than before.

The young woman was annoyed to find herself missing the old watchfulness, as the new one made her feel as if she could never mess up. Things like how she shut the door and took off her shoes suddenly seemed so much more important.

So she did those things the same way as always—she didn't really care about her shoes. If they couldn't stand a little kicking around, then they weren't worth her wearing them anymore. And since she'd once Jyuuken-ed the door, she figured she couldn't do much more damage.

"Father, Hanabi, I'm home!"

The volume of the music coming from Hanabi's room went down a little and Hinata took that as a sign that she was acknowledged before heading to her bathroom and taking a shower.

--

Me: 1,183 words…

Gael: Rather pathetic, but there you go.

Meryl: They'll get longer, don't worry. We don't own anything other than the plot or Kaida, so unlike Kishimoto-sama, we don't have deadlines or a certain number of pages. So you'll have to put up with whatever we give you.

Gael: Next time—things start to heat up!!


	3. 2 Land of Sand

**Strength Can't Be Measured**

**Chapter Two: Land of Sand**

--

Kaida shifted slightly in her sleep, the movement sending her closer to the edge of her bed and a rude awakening. Some unconscious sense of balance saved her though; she stopped moving without shifting too close.

A low chuckle came from the doorway to her room, Ino bit off the laugh before she woke the sleeping girl up.

It was priceless. Every inch of wall was covered in some kind of poster, leaving barely enough room for a tack board that was covered with papers and thumb tacks all trying to occupy the same spaces.

The fan was going full blast and the brunette nin had kicked her quilt off her legs.

Ino was contemplating the utter hilarity of the situation when one of Kaida's legs twitched.

The blonde burst out laughing, and the younger girl sat up straight on reflex, looking around and seeming very confused. "Ino? What are you doing in my room?"

"We've got a mission, and Sakura sent me to find you… When was the last time you slept, you were totally out of it, I thought you were going to fall off the bed!"

Kaida grumbled and got off her small bed, and Ino went to wait in the kitchen, still giggling as she raided the fridge. Kaida lived with her parents in an apartment, a situation very familiar to Ino, so she had no remorse about taking their food.

Kaida was still putting all of her gear into her multiple pockets when she came out, her hair already pulled back into its ponytail. She glared at Ino, who was enjoying the left-over half of a sub-sandwich. "I thought you were on a diet. Didn't you try and kill Sakura for suggesting we get ice cream last week?"

Ino shrugged. "That was ice cream, this is a sandwich. Besides, I'm hungry."

"Well, help yourself." While there was still an edge in Kaida's tone, Ino knew she actually did mean it. The five of them were very generous with their food, knowing being hungry on missions sucked.

When Ino finished her sandwich and Kaida had finished getting ready and eaten a piece of toast, they left.

In Tsunade's office, Tsunade was in her chair and Shizune was in her traditional place behind her. They were the first ones there and Ino smirked at the slightly-tanner-Shizune. "How was the beach?"

"It was fine."

Then Sakura, Tenten and Hinata walked in and Tsunade acknowledged them all by folding her hands in the air and laying her head on them. "Girls."

Sakura and Ino exchanged looks, knowing Tsunade usually started a briefing on a lighter note or by launching into the situation—she never hesitated…

Before the two who understood the significance could process the pauses, Tsunade spoke again, holding up a piece of paper with a ring that would have connected it to a messenger hawk. "I've just received word from Gaara of the Sand. He was here for the celebration of the treaty, as you know, and when he got back; his people claimed to be being attacked by rogue ninja. Sure enough, the next day they were attacked. It's an oddly large group, and Gaara thinks his people are too spread out. Seeing as it's five-year-anniversary of our treaty, I'm sending him our best. You'll be working with him directly, and his best nin."

The unspoken question hung in the air, and Sakura stepped forward to take the message. "We'll head out right away."

They turned and Shizune called out, "Good luck!" before the door closed. As they headed out of the tower, Tenten fiddled with her favorite scroll that hung from her waist.

"An ANBU team for rogue ninja_?_ I know Gaara sent it, so it must be real, but still… Sounds like some of the missions Tsunade sends Genin on when she has nothing else for them to do."

They all nodded but no one said anything else.

--

The five reached Suna, masks securely in place. They were taken to Gaara's office, where the Kazekage and his two siblings waited.

The door shut behind them and Kankuro grinned. "Off with the masks, girls. Don't be shy, come on."

The first one to break the rule and pull off her mask was Kaida, grinning at the puppet-nin. Ino and Tenten were next, only behind by a couple seconds. Sakura sighed and pulled hers off just a little before Hinata, who only came in last because she did it in a dignified manner, not the quick pull the others used.

Sakura flicked Kaida, sure that evil ideas were passing between Kankuro and her teammate, before turning to Gaara. "What's going on?"

"We're being attacked by some rogues." Judging by Temari's grin, that was an attempt at humor for Gaara. Kankuro and Sakura exchanged looks at that, trading mental notes on what it was like to hang around with humorless people.

"We heard. What kind of ninja are they? When do they attack? What do they attack _with_?"

Temari stepped into the talking role now, going through information with a surprising talent, "All kinds. They seem to be a group of ninja with some reason to attack Suna all working together for the time being. Their team spirit should be pretty low. Whenever they feel like it, apparently. We haven't found a pattern yet. I think they would be insanely strong if they could work together and if one of the stronger ones was leader. I don't know why they put up with their leader as he is, he seems incompetent. They're a mix of all kinds of ninja skills." The dirty-blonde smiled wryly.

Ino exhaled heavily, "So this _is _kind of serious…"

"Indeed."

Sakura was amazed every time she saw the Sand Siblings together; they always seemed to get closer. Gaara's voice was oddly close to Kankuro's and if she hadn't known the puppet-nin would never say something like 'indeed,' the medic-nin would have checked to see who actually said it.

She recovered from her drifting thoughts, "We'll patrol the area until the group shows up."

Temari laid a hand on her huge fan, "We'll join you." Kankuro smirked and tossed a wireless microphone and earpiece to everyone.

The five Konoha ANBU slipped their masks back on. Ino and Sakura pulled their hoods back over their heads to hide their all-too-obvious hair, and the eight ninja left the office via the windows.

Sakura relaxed as Tenten ran checks on the wireless, and then the radio fell into silence, apart from the faint noises of seven other people breathing.

Hinata felt out of place in the broad daylight, used to running patrols like this in shady and tree-infested Konoha. Luckily her ANBU outfit protected her, or she had the nasty feeling she'd be getting a bad sunburn in the next few days.

Underneath the wolf mask, her Byakugan was activated and the Hyuuga girl found nothing interesting in the immediate area. She spoke out loud, pretty much to herself if not for the 

wireless, "Tiger, I don't see anything nearby, but it might be a good idea to go out farther in the patrol later, and try to find their camp."

"_Roger, Wolf,"_ Was Sakura's reply, perfectly clear through the earpiece.

The radio lapsed back into silence and they all ran about two circles around Suna before anything changed.

"_They're here."_

"_Wolf, where's Dragon?"_

Hinata was in the very farthest spot from the gates, but she spotted the familiar shape of Tenten very quickly. And sure enough, there were a few people very close to her, and the rest creeping up behind them.

Hinata spoke while moving directly over the village, straight for Tenten. "Five meters north of the gates, on top of the wall. They're coming slowly, far away from each other, but they're all coming."

There wasn't even a reply as they all sped to the spot Hinata had pointed out. They could hear Kankuro, probably talking into a different wireless, informing the other Sand nin that the rogues were coming.

With her head start, Hinata beat everyone but Gaara and Ino to Tenten. Soon her teammates and the Sand ninja arrived. She did a quick count of their numbers and the number of rogues. There were more rogues, but they seemed cocky where the Sand and ANBU were serious.

Temari moved next to the Hyuuga and pointed at a form in the middle of the group. "That's their leader."

Sakura clenched a fist, "Right. My group, go for the leader, you know what to do."

Kaida bent her knees, ready to spring. Even beneath the hawk mask, her grin was evident—she had always liked the formation they were about to pull off.

Gaara nodded at Sakura and made the signal for his ninja to move out. The Konoha ANBU moved at the same time, Kaida and Hinata leapt in front, Hinata started using her Gentle Fist on any rogue nin in her way, heading straight for the one Temari had pointed out as the leader. Right beside her, Kaida was doing the same thing, only instead of Jyuuken, Kaida was using simple taijutsu.

Right behind them was Sakura, who was waiting to get close enough to go at the leader with her super-strength. When that happened, the other four would help her or keep anything from jumping in.

Ino had found a particularly skilled ninja and taken over his body with her jutsu. Tenten was right behind her, laying explosive tags and keeping everyone off Ino.

Between the five of them, they reached the leader quickly, leaving a trail of destruction behind them.

Sakura took center stage then, aiming and landing a punch on him. As he reeled back, Hinata was behind him, and she hit him with her deadly palms.

Ino was fighting on her own now, waiting for a chance to use her family skills. Tenten was also pulling back on her favorite Jutsus, fighting with her katana.

Kaida and Hinata were doing things much the same as before, only staying in one place instead of fighting their way through the chaos.

The loss of their leader didn't seem to faze the other ninja though, and while many of them fit Hinata's first opinion of them—that they were cocky without skills to back it up—there were enough strong ninja that it was becoming a problem. Plus even the mediocre skills meant that someone had to use strength and time to deal with them.

They were being worn down fast.

Sakura was coming up with a lot of plans, but they were all stupid and doomed to failure. She just needed one that had a slim chance of working, just one little chance—

"WOAH!! WHAT'S GOING ON **HERE??"**

Her head whipped around in the direction of the shout, because she would have had to be deaf three times over to not recognize that voice.

--

Me: 1,823 words. Not too shabby, I guess.

Gael: Own nothing. Accept it.

Meryl: You're evil, that drop-off ending was so… DROPPED-OFF!!

Me: Yup.

Meryl: sigh Well either way. You'd have to be an idiot not to know who the shouting person was. And with that person comes… Well, you know what! Next chapter: dun dun DUN!!

Gael: Did you actually tell them anything about the next chapter?

Meryl: …I don't think so…


	4. 3 Reunion

**Strength Can't Be Measured**

**Chapter Three: Reunion**

--

Sakura whipped around, and only Tenten's quick eye and aim kept her from being hit by two rogue ninja. "Sa—Tiger! What are you doing?! This is a _battle!_"

"Dragon, didn't you recognize that voice?!"

"What? No." Tenten was still defending Sakura, but the pinkette was back to fighting on her own.

Then Hinata was next to them. "Dragon, I recognized it too. It was Naruto."

"What?!"

"'What' what?" Ino and Kaida were there then, and the five of them formed a circle.

"That screaming was Naruto!" Sakura was in a full emotional state now, and Ino pitied the nin that got anywhere near her.

"Yeah, it's Naruto and all the rest. Kaida and I saw them—they've joined the fight!"

Sakura looked at Kaida, her glance a wide-eyed question.

Kaida frowned, "I saw a group of boys about your age jump into the fight. They were wearing headbands, I'm pretty sure they were Leaf."

Sometimes the masks were annoying, they hid your face from your enemy, but among friends and teammates, it hid expressions. Sometimes they could tell, but Kaida didn't know how to feel. She was pretty sure that there would be hope and joy in her friends' expressions, but what else?

It was annoying.

The brunette could tell that Sakura's eyes were narrowed, though. The pinkette stood up straight and gave the order in an ANBU-tone, "Same formation that we took to get here, but head for the boys. Kaida knows generally where they are."

They moved out, and Kaida pulled slightly ahead of Hinata. The sounds of clanging metal surrounded their little area as they plowed through the fight. Kaida spotted a bright yellow head and a bright green _blur_ among other eye-catching colors and people. She headed for it and felt Hinata move faster as she spotted what they were headed for.

--

The nine boys moved easily together, the kind of teamwork that comes with years of nothing to do but train together. Even the dark young man with the red eyes who wasn't as aware of the others' moves fell in naturally next to the bright boy.

A flash of white caught Naruto's attention and he saw a group of five ANBU fighting towards them. The one slightly in front with the hawk mask punched the last enemy between the two groups and left it for the hooded ANBU behind them. The mysterious yet familiar person—Naruto hadn't seen any other Konoha nin in a long time, even the ANBU mask felt like a piece of home—caught his gaze.

"You're Uzumaki Naruto, right?" It was a medium range voice, and Naruto didn't recognize it.

The other ANBU were behind the first one now. Two of them had hoods; the other three had their hair pulled back. He didn't recognize any at all, even though anyone would have told him that recognization would have been impossible. "Yup, that's me."

"Good." This time it was the one in the tiger mask and hood that spoke. The other five fell to the sides of this one, marking the tiger as the leader. "These rogue ninja are attacking Suna. We came to help them. We're grateful you showed up now, their numbers are huge. When the battle is won we will escort you back to Konoha, but for now, we fight."

The voice made Naruto's spine crawl—it was so _familiar_ but so _different._

Tenten snorted at Sakura's little speech. It sounded so insanely stiff. _Then again,_ she reasoned to herself, _If it had been me talking to Lee or Neji, I would have done pretty much the same…_ She sighed she threw another round of various pointed weapons at those around her before pulling her katana back out.

The rest of the battle was short. With nine reinforcements added to those already against them, the rogue ninja realized they were doomed to lose and fled. Only a quarter of them were left, and not many made it when they tried to run.

A few Sunese nin cheered as Gaara and his siblings came over to the Konoha group. The redhead blinked when he spotted the boys. "What are you doing here? Weren't you on a long mission?"

Naruto beamed and gave Gaara a thumbs up. "We finished! We were on our way back when we decided to stop by and Neji saw fighting!"

While they talked, Kankuro was looking between the boys and the girls, who had grouped together and started edging away. Even Kaida seemed eager to get away, and she had no real reason. A wide and evil grin spread across the puppet-nin's face.

"Hey, ANBU, where're you going? We've still gotta thank you for your help!"

They froze and the tiger and viper masks fixed on Kankuro's face. He could tell he was being mentally killed by several people but he kept up his grin.

Then Temari hit him on the arm and gave the ANBU an I've-got-your-back grin. "Leave them alone, idiot."

Gaara didn't say anything, so Kankuro stopped talking.

Sakura spoke up again, using that same uncomfortable but professional voice. "You're welcome; let us know if they give you any more trouble. We'll escort these nin back now." She bowed quickly and raised her closed fist. The ANBU surrounded the Konoha nin with Sakura in the front. She lowered her fist and the entire group moved out.

The journey to Konoha was quiet, not even muttered talk between the boys.

They reached in good time though, and went straight through the gates and to the base of Tsunade's tower before slowing down at all.

Up in Tsunade's office, Sakura took the papers on their mission and stood to the side to fill them out while Tsunade talked excitedly to the boys.

Suddenly Naruto's head shot up and he looked around eagerly. "Hey! Where's Sakura, eh?! She's gotta be around here somewhere, right? Where is she?!"

Tsunade snorted. "I don't know, she's her own person. Probably out with the girls though."

Naruto blinked, "'The girls'? Well, where would they be?"

"Either one of their houses, and for your sake I hope it's not Kaida's; getting some dinner; or training."

The boys filed out quickly, Neji sticking the paperwork into his bag, Naruto at their head. They were undoubtedly going to look for the girls, who escaped out the window as soon as the door shut behind the boys.

On the ledge outside the windows, Sakura gave quick orders, pulling off her mask to look each of them fully in the face. The others pulled off their masks, too. "OK, everybody go home and 

change into something different and meet at the training grounds. I know Tsunade told them we might be training, but that's probably not the first place they'll look."

They all nodded and jumped over the roofs towards their respective homes. Sakura unlocked the door and dashed inside, slamming it behind her. As she pulled off her ANBU gear and threw on some normal ninja-pants and sandals, complete with her favorite training shirt, her mind raced over the faces of Naruto, Sai, Lee, Shikamaru and… _Sasuke…_

They were _back…_

Shutting off her mind as she grabbed everything she would need for training and raced out the door, taking a single moment to lock it, she focused on getting to her ANBU team's training grounds as quickly as possible.

The rest of her dash there was a blur in her mind, and she made it there first. When the others showed up, they just kind of looked at each other for a minute.

"Anyone else shaking?" Ino smiled nervously, and they all raised their hands.

Kaida sighed, "This doesn't make sense. I should be laughing my head off, but instead I'm as nervous as you guys."

Sakura smiled slightly at her friends' open nervousness before taking charge again. "OK, I think we'll just keep it light and just do our own things. If you want to pair up and spar that's fine, just don't destroy anything." Her small grin changed into a teasing smirk. Kaida rolled her eyes, knowing if anyone would destroy something, it would be their leader.

The younger brunette went to a training post and started attacking it, still in the hand-to-hand mood, and not feeling like practicing Jutsus. The older brunette did what everyone expected and continued what she did every time she got a chance: practiced the Crescent Moon Dance she'd learned about from a scroll in Tsunade's office.

Hinata followed Kaida's example and worked on killing a wooden training post.

With cheery grins at each other, Sakura and Ino started sparring.

The routine was a familiar one, something they had done even before they knew each other. Focusing on your own growth, just feeling the movements that you'd learned long ago come out. It was easy to forget that there was anything to be nervous about.

Until a drawl reached their ears, "I told you they'd be somewhere around here, Naruto."

Ino turned her back on Sakura, "Shikamaru?! Chouji! Hey guys, you're back!!"

Chouji saluted her with a chip in hand. "Yup. What're you guys doing?"

"What's it look like, having a tea party?! We're training! Yeesh…" Ino folded her arms over her chest and gave Sakura an exasperated look. Sakura rolled her eyes.

"Training's over guys, go nuts." Sakura grinned as Kaida whooped for no reason. The pinkette ran over to Naruto, grabbing him into a bone-crushing hug. "You idiot, you're finally BACK!!"

Similar reunions were going on all around. Ino was yelling, but smiling; Tenten was enduring a long speech from Lee about youth, her expression exasperated but fond; Hinata was grinning in a way that must have seemed strange to Kiba and Shino, but Sakura knew they'd have to accept the more confident Hyuuga; and Kaida was watching it all, clutching her sides in laughter.

Sakura turned her attention back to her old team, finally all together. "This is so… Perfect. I haven't seen Ino yell like that in a while."

Naruto wore a grin as big as Sakura's, and he launched into questions. "What happened here after we left? Where's Kakashi-sensei, is he OK? Is that epidemic still going on?"

Sakura snorted. "No. Do you think we'd be training if that was still around? Kakashi's fine, he's actually got a new team. He's giving them the bell test right now, I think. And a lot happened, I can't even narrow down the highlights…"

Before Naruto could say anything in reply, Ino's voice drew everyone's attention to the blonde. "We're all going to Sakura's house, this deserves a party!"

"INO! Why my house?!"

"Because, yours is biggest that's also uninhabited by anyone else. Don't worry; I'll get the food from somewhere else." Ino winked at her best friend and dashed over to Kaida, grabbing her arm. "Let's go, we've got to get some food!"

"Roger!" Despite her amusement at watching the chaos of a reunion, Sakura could tell Kaida was glad to escape before the dreaded 'who's that?' came up.

The ANBU Captain sighed. "OK, follow me. Those two'll be furious if we aren't all there before they get there."

--

Me: 1,866 words. Barely better than last chapter… Oh well, still better.

Meryl: We own Kaida and the plot. The rest belongs to someone on the other side of the world… So sad.

Gael: Next chapter is more reuniting stuff. Ino's par-tay, and introducing Kaida! Not to mention, Sakura finally has to face the members of her team that aren't Naruto, Hinata has to face Naruto, Tenten has to face Hinata's cousin, and they all have to face talking about what's happened… Like how the boys captured Sasuke, and how the girls got promoted (several times)!!

Meryl: REVIEW AND WIN A SELF-SATISFACTION MUFFIN!!


	5. 4 Home

**Strength Can't Be Measured**

**Chapter Four: Home**

--

Sakura unlocked her door and sent out a prayer to anything listening. She went inside, closely followed by nine boys and two girls, most of them waiting to see what her home looked like.

It wasn't all that special; nice enough furniture, a TV, a hallway leading to her room and the bathroom, and the kitchen off to the right. There were no comments at all about it, and the pinkette was grateful. She was even more grateful it was clean.

They all went to the living room and fell onto the couch and few chairs. The rest sat on the floor. Sakura saw Sasuke eyeing her pictures and looked away, determined not to think about it. She failed, and thought about it.

_My pictures… I always thought it was a good thing, having them all up there, but what'll he—they—think?! At least there aren't any pictures of us as ANBU, that would be horrible… I have to tell them just right, and before they find out on their own…_

Her thoughts were interrupted by Ino and Kaida's arrival. They appeared to have bought half the store, and they were both grinning like lunatics. They set all the food in the kitchen and, with Hinata's help, set about attempting to organize it all so everyone could actually eat it.

Sakura gulped at the sheer mass of it all. "Ino, where did you get the _money_ for all this?"

Ino smirked, "Unlike some people who splurge on clothes, I've been saving my money from missions. Kaida paid for some of it too, but that's where I got my money."

Naruto drew his eyes away from the food to the people around it. Sakura had looked over just before he did that, so she got to see his confused expression, followed by the usual screaming. "Hey! Who are _you?!"_ His arm was extended in a straight line ending with the tip of his finger pointed directly at Kaida.

The brunette gave Sakura a 'wow' look before turning to Naruto and his finger. "Tategoto Kaida. I'm on these guys' team." She waved at the other girls as she said 'these guys' but didn't elaborate on their team-ship. "Who are you?"

"Uzumaki Naruto! Hasn't Sakura told you about me?" His cheery expression vanished.

"Yeah, but I figured you should say it."

Ino snorted, "Have you seen Sakura's table over there? She's got a shrine to her friends over there, and you're featured as much as me or Kakashi, and I've known her since she was a sheepdog!" Naruto gave the other blonde a confused look at the last part and she shook her head, "Don't ask."

Kaida grinned at the blonde girl, "You beat me out though. You're in that one after the epidemic; I'm just in the other one in Tsunade's office."

Shikamaru looked at them with a new interest, "What happened with the epidemic, anyway? We haven't gotten any news other than Tsunade acting like it never happened."

Ino looked at Sakura, giving her a sympathetic smile. The pinkette gave one back, knowing this was the perfect time to tell them… That she'd have to tell them…

Before she could give herself a heart attack, Sakura started talking. "We stopped the epidemic. Me, Ino, Tsunade, Shizune… and pretty much everyone else." Sakura could feel Ino's frown, but she ignored it and went on, "After that, it was a matter of rebuilding what we'd lost, which wasn't buildings or anything. We were seriously low on ninja, and everyone was doing a lot more missions. That was when Tenten, Ino, Hinata and I started getting really close, and Kaida was put on a team with Tenten and Hinata. So we met her. And, for whatever reason, Tsunade sent us on some missions as a five-man cell. It's all kind of run together in my memory, but we were promoted to Jonin… and then higher. We were made an ANBU squad, the five of us."

Sakura's eyes went over the five of them, lounging in her apartment like normal teenagers, except there was a large group of boys staring at them.

Several people recovered at once, and Lee, Kiba, Naruto and Chouji all started shouting at once. There were several "No way!!"s.

Tenten took charge then, folding her arms across her chest and yelling, "Shut up! It's the truth; you can either accept it or go tell Tsunade you don't believe us. She'll probably give you a mental exam, because you'll sound crazy." She turned to Hinata, who was closest. "You have your mask, don't you?"

Hinata nodded and reached into her large bag, pulling out her wolf's mask.

Kaida seemed to decide it was time to see the perk side of this confession, at least for the girls. "Hey, Naruto. Remember the ANBU in Suna, who brought you back home? That was us. We seriously had to _run_ to change before you found us though." She made a face.

Tenten rolled her eyes at the younger girl. "Knock it off Kaida."

"Yes ma'am!" Kaida was joking then too, but she did stop.

There was a little awkward phase then, some of the boys asking non-stop questions, some of them sitting silent. Tenten finally made some invisible signal to Lee and Neji, and all three of them slipped out. Kaida was right behind, but she went in the other direction, deciding to train some more.

Ino left loudly, finally throwing her hands up and saying, "I can't take it anymore! Come on, Shikamaru, Chouji. Let's go get something to eat." They had both blinked at the fact that she had suggested eating, but followed.

Kiba's stomach growled then and he rubbed it sheepishly. "Guess we'd better get some food too."

Hinata nodded, "That sounds good. And then we can take Akamaru to see Hana, he hasn't had a check-up in a while."

Kiba muttered good-naturedly not-so-under his breath about how he could look after his own dog, but they left also.

As the door closed behind Shino, Sakura realized it was just her, Naruto, Sai, and Sasuke. She moved to the chair Hinata had left vacant, and they were in a nice little circle.

"So…"

"How'd you get to be an ANBU?! Are you even stronger? Has Tsunade taught you any super-secret techniques? Can I learn them?!" Sakura grinned a little; Naruto had always sbeen good at putting her at ease.

"I worked hard, idiot." She crossed her arms and scowled at him for even asking. "And yeah, I'm a bit stronger. Tsunade's been too busy to teach me much, even if I had time to learn. I've been making my own techniques now, I guess. And NO you can't learn them, because I doubt you've gotten that much better at chakra control, even with the added three years."

He stuck his tongue out and she retaliated. Sai smiled a genuine smile, but he clearly hadn't 'mastered' teasing yet, because he managed to fit five insults into one small sentence about how far Sakura was above Naruto in that area anyway.

Sakura stood up, glaring down at the painter. "You've been back for an hour at most and you've already called me a HAG?! And you!" She pointed at Naruto, "I don't even WANT to know what you did to amuse yourself, so don't bother!"

"How'd you know I was thinking about that?"

"You looked like the picture of Jiriya on the back of his books. Tsunade got bored started going through all the pictures she had of him. There were twenty-nine of that one."

The pinkette sat back down with a 'thump.'

"So," She looked at all three of them, "How was it? What happened to Sasuke's team?"

"They're still out there, somewhere— I doubt they were killed." Sasuke spoke for the first time. Sakura just nodded.

There was another small silence and Sakura stretched. "Alright, I'm done with the bad parts. Ino and Kaida left all the food, so I'm going to eat some of it. You're welcome to join me; they got almost everything, even ramen."

"NO WAY!!"

--

Naruto left to find Iruka, but was a little disappointed when no one wanted to come with him. Sakura had seen him and couldn't just leave Sasuke and Sai in her apartment, Sai didn't really know who he was, and Sasuke wasn't ready for any more major face-downs yet.

He'd guessed the last one—Sasuke had really just said 'no.'

The blond boy nearly ran into something vaguely smaller than him and dark-haired. It took him a few seconds and a 'whoa!' to realize it was Hinata, who had wandered off after Inuzuka Hana started talking about Akamaru's growth and eating habits and bone density. He blinked and grinned.

"Hey Hinata! I was looking for Iruka, do you know where he went?"

"He's probably at the Academy. Even during the ninja shortage he didn't stop teaching."

Naruto nodded, then looked down at the Hyuuga girl curiously. He put a hand on her forehead and noticed it was only slightly warmer than normal. He blinked.

"You're not sick! Did Sakura cure you too? Is it cuz you weren't feverish all the time that you were able to train hard enough to become an ANBU?!" He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Y'know, I'm still a Genin."

Hinata shook her head, "Tsunade told me she considers you a Jonin, at least. She missed you while you were gone, although she doesn't show it now that you're back."

"Really?" He beamed at her, and Hinata smiled back, glad to be the bearer of this piece of news at least. "I know I've gotten better from training with everybody for three years, but still…" He frowned suddenly. "Neji didn't train with me that much. He wanted to get training with other kinds of fighting; he said mine was simple, close-range stuff. Course, he never mentioned how I beat him at the Chuunin exams. Remember that?"

Hinata nodded, her smile still in place.

It suddenly hit Naruto like a horse running straight into him that the reason he'd been so eager to fight Neji was Hinata. He looked back, searching his memory. Had he really fought—and beat—Hyuuga Neji over Hyuuga Hinata?

Another mental horse hit him when he realized he'd do it again, and not just to fight Neji's Byakugan.

Hinata was looking very pretty, suddenly eighteen and smiling freely…

Naruto blinked in confusion once again. He had not just thought that, that would be way too weird…

--

Tenten lead the way into her favorite Chinese restaurant. Neji and Lee had stopped arguing to look around. Lee was beaming, and clearly liked the place already. Even Neji seemed to approve, as far she could tell. Her Neji-senses were _way_ off after all this time; she'd have to find a way to reactivate them. It was annoying, not knowing what he was thinking, and he'd expect her to pick up her special knack for _knowing_ right back up.

They found a table and ordered quickly, Tenten choosing foods for everyone. Lee would always order the weirdest stuff and Neji went for bland, bland, and more bland. Tenten considered it her duty to educate them about real food.

She was surprised how easy it seemed to be with them again. Even their unconscious movements seemed to have fallen back into place. Lee was swinging his legs under the table, and leaning away from the table, although his posture was perfect; Neji was leaning on the table slightly, feet under his chair and away from Lee's kicks; and Tenten leaned on the table too, but her feet were up against the nearest table legs while she fiddled with her fork.

But it was more than that, she decided. It just somehow suddenly felt like… Home.

--

Me: 1,958 words. OH MY GOD, I CONNOT BELIEVE HOW LONG THIS TOOK!! I'm so ashamed!! I've had extreme writers block, and school and stuff. AHH! I know I'm pathetic, but I'll have the next one up MUCH SOONER, since I'm mostly over the writer's block, and I don't have school Monday. Don't kill me!!

Meryl: We own nothing… Cept the plot and Kaida, but no one's going to sue us for that… Due to his own request, we put Gael in a suit.

Me: I know, he's STRANGE… But here he is, sporting the suit even he didn't know he was wearing till RIGHT NOW…

(Gael appears, wearing a penguin suit)

Gael: Review and save the penguins from global warming. And the polar bears!!

Meryl: Next chapter: A little more catching-up, some talk about the hunt for Sasuke… AND THEN!! Something starts to happen…


	6. 5 Return

**Strength Can't Be Measured**

**Chapter 5: Return**

--

Sai had drifted out of Sakura's apartment a little after Naruto left, but Sasuke seemed reluctant to go. Sakura knew he wasn't sure how to face the Uchiha compound, and it took her a couple minutes to decide what to do.

"Do you want to go back home yet? Not that I'm not glad you're still here, it's actually kind of sad that Naruto and Sai left so fast, you know what I mean? But I guess Sai won't ever be that openly friendly, and Naruto's always been like that. Some things never change, right?" Sakura winced as the words came out—she still rambled when she didn't know what to say.

Sasuke looked up from the point in space he'd been staring at. "It's kind of funny, Naruto wouldn't leave me alone for seven months and now he's run off."

Sakura smiled and sat down in the armchair next to the one he was sitting in. "What was it like out there? How'd they convince you to come back?"

He stared at her for a moment, but then spoke in a calm but not unfeeling voice, "I might have come back on my own anyway. I kept comparing my team to Team 7, I would lie awake at night and find that it wouldn't be Itachi or Orochimaru I'd think about, it would be you and Naruto and Kakashi. I'd see Naruto's eyes when I left him in the Valley, and hear you begging me to stay, and feel Kakashi's hand on my shoulder after he pulled me out of the hole he beat me into, telling me I'd done well. I was almost glad Naruto showed up and started yelling about how I was coming home."

Sakura looked into his eyes for a while, "You've changed."

"So have you."

She laughed a little and he smirked. "I guess so."

There was a small silence then. Sakura was over her rambling frame of mind and Sasuke's smirk hadn't left his face, even though he had looked away from her. She found herself staring at him. He hadn't changed a lot—same face and eyes and even hairstyle. But there was some kind of new peace in his face, and a lot of the bitter anger was gone.

He looked back at her and stood up. "Will you come with me to the compound? I think I'm going to need to move furniture around and I haven't been in most of the rooms since everyone was killed." A line appeared between his eyebrows, but other than that Sasuke didn't show a sign of the hate for Itachi Sakura knew was still there.

She grinned and stood up as well, cracking her knuckles. "I think I can handle furniture and dust."

--

Over the next few days several things happened that Tenten couldn't quite believe.

Naruto and Hinata ran into each other every day around lunch time, which resulted in them getting lunch together every day.

Sasuke had all but moved in with Sakura—they spent all their time at the Uchiha compound, fixing it up and pretty much changing everything but they both went back to Sakura's apartment to sleep at night.

Ino and Tenten had exchanged looks at that, until they'd met up with Sakura as she and Sasuke headed towards the apartment, and as soon as the four of them walked through the door, Sasuke had crashed onto the blanket-covered couch and fallen asleep. The three girls had snickered and chatted about how it_ would_ be harder on a boy without super-strength than a girl with it to do the heavy-lifting.

Ino had focused on being a ray of sunshine after that. Tenten had never really noticed but she actually _had_ been affected by the guys' leaving, they just hadn't noticed in their own grieving. It was painfully obvious now though, since she had brightened up so much.

Sai was actually taking notes on her behavior, and Tenten was grateful he hadn't tried to imitate her laugh or anything yet. Ino had a pretty laugh—for a girl. A guy doing it would sound… weird.

Kaida seemed to be fitting in in her own weird way, especially with Lee and Kiba. She and Lee trained whenever Lee wasn't training with Gai and she was over at Kiba's a lot, either to hang out with him or Hana.

Tenten had decided that while Lee was now busy all the time, having her team back was one of the best feelings she'd ever had. Neji hadn't changed much, and they fell back into a routine of training, only the odds were a little more even, since Tenten finally had enough pockets for all the scrolls she'd always hated choosing between.

--

Hinata wished she would have noticed the lack of missions for the past week, she would have known Tsunade was going to give them something big.

Although, to be fair, Tsunade hadn't seen it coming either.

The first female Hokage had been finishing up her paperwork when Shizune had rushed in to tell her that Gaara of the Sand was there for the upcoming Chuunin exams. He was three days early, but Tsunade greeted him warmly and showed him and his Genin teams and sensei to the house that was luckily already prepared for them.

As she and Shizune walked away from the house, Tsunade moved a couple plans around in her head. "Shizune, have Sakura, Hinata and Kaida set to guarding the Suna group. Tenten and Ino will join them once the exams start, but for now I don't think we need the full formality. And get Naruto registered in the Chuunin exams, or else I'm keeping him as a Genin forever."

"Yes ma'am."

So Hinata didn't have any free time anymore, because even though it was an easy job, it was time consuming.

The Hyuuga girl found herself missing lunch with Naruto and free time to train or relax after the very first day. She ate with Sakura and Kaida one time, and the others she ate with Sunese Genin and Gaara or by herself, depending on her duties at the time. Sakura was anxious for the exams to be over as well, she said she could feel the dust building in the compound, since Sasuke wasn't working there either.

Kaida got along surprisingly well with the Suna kids, but Hinata knew she missed training with Lee, since she'd been figuring out her taijutsu more. Kaida was a long-range fighter, so working on her close-range combat had made her feel more ready for another situation like the one in Suna.

But the Chuunin exams proved to be one of the smaller problems of the second week the boys were back.

Hinata was happy—she got to eat lunch with her friends and the Chuunin exams started the next day. Tenten and Ino would join the mission (she'd heard they were both bored out of their minds) and there would only be few more days of being home but at work.

They had just started digging in when a Chuunin/medical student ran up, panting heavily. "Sakura! Sakura!"

Kaida sent Hinata a smirk. The four of them often made fun of the medical students near worship of Sakura. The pinkette ignored the brunette though and turned to face the younger girl. "Yes?"

"Lady Tsunade says to come quick! She says it's something you have to see!" The girl cleared her throat and said in a half-decent impersonation of Tsunade, "'New ninja will be coming to guard the Sunese guests for the time being. Sakura needs to report to the hospital, and Kaida and Hinata need to find Tenten, Ino and everyone else who should be included and report to the hospital as well.'"

Sakura stood up and ran out with Kaida and Hinata not far behind. They went in three directions- Sakura to the hospital, and Hinata and Kaida to find their teammates and the boys and their sensei.

Sakura reached the hospital and bee-lined for the front desk. "Which room is Lady Tsunade in?"

The receptionist told her and Sakura power-walked (even the Hokage wasn't allowed to run in the hospital) towards the room. When she got there, she was surprised to see Lee lying on the bed.

"Lee? What happened?!"

Tsunade looked up from where she was checking Lee's pulse for what was probably the umpteenth time. "He's showing signs eerily similar to the epidemic a few years ago. We gave him the antidote, thinking it was just a stray case and it would be over soon, but he hasn't responded. It seems to have worked a _bit_, but his temperature is still climbing and he's getting sores."

Sakura stared at her mentor. "The epidemic… is back?!"

The blonde woman nodded. "And it's returned strong enough that it'll spread before we re-make the antidote."

--

Me: 1, 487 words. NOOOOOO…

Gael: We don't own anything. Except the things no one else does, so don't think we don't know what we DO own… Even if it isn't most of it.

Meryl: You thought you'd seen the last of the epidemic, DIDN'T YOU?? Well, you were wrong… Next chapter: Trying to find a cure while word spreads… Of course Sakura can stop the epidemic, AGAIN, but what side effects will its mere presence bring?


	7. 6 Rumors

**Strength Can't Be Measured**

**Chapter 6: Rumors**

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tenten caught Hinata on reflex, even though the Hyuuga girl hadn't feinted in months if not years. She and everyone Kaida and Hinata had thought important were there, in the hospital, staring at their Hokage. The Hyuuga in Tenten's arms was slowly coming back to consciousness while the Hyuuga at her side stood stiff as a board.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Naruto was the first to recover, as usual. Kaida was standing on Tenten's other side, trembling lightly. She put a hand on Tenten's arm, gripping over the brunette's ANBU tattoo without meaning to. Ino had joined Sakura in the hospital room with Lee, so the present members of the ANBU squad were all physically connected in that moment. Then Ino burst into the room, slightly out of breath but her blue eyes containing a spark of confidence that made Tenten feel a little more hopeful.

"Where did you put the rosemary when we reorganized the stores?" All formalities were forgotten already, but Tsunade didn't seem to care.

"Fourth shelf on the right side of the main store room. They might have been pushed to the back when the rowan berries were put in, so check carefully."

"Yes ma'am!" Ino ran out of the room again and Hinata, who had returned almost to normal, stood on her own and followed her.

Kiba looked confused and called after her, "Why are you going?"

Hinata turned at the door, her face still pale but Tenten reminded herself that that was normal. "Ino won't be able to find what she needs, and Sakura will need her help making the actual cure. I'll be their runner." She smiled slightly and went out the door, headed for the storeroom.

Kaida let go of Tenten and looked at Tsunade. "I'll continue looking after the Sunese guests on my own, if that's alright." Tsunade nodded distractedly but Tenten looked up, surprised.

"What about me?"

Tsunade's eyes focused at that, "Tenten, I need you to help me with organizing things. Particularly the ninja. Take Neji and bring all the ninja out on missions close to the village back in. Don't tell them why unless necessary."

Tenten seemed to be hesitating so Neji bowed to Tsunade and grabbed Tenten's wrist and pulled her out. As they exited the building and walked down the streets of Konoha, Tenten broke the silence. "Why did you drag me out of there? I don't get why everyone has a purpose but Tsunade has to make one up for me!"

Neji eyed her with his piercing gaze that always made her feel like he could see into her, even without the Byakugan activated. "Because you never were good at making your own purposes. You wanted to be like Tsunade but you knew nothing about her, so you just trained your own way. You turned out nothing like her. You helped me get stronger in the process when you swore that you'd quit being a kunoichi before you did anything for the 'stuck-up Hyuuga brat.' You're bad at making your own purposes, better to let others do it for you."

She gave him a funny look but didn't say anything. They had reached the gates and broke into a run for the tree line.

--

Kaida collapsed onto the bed she'd been given in the Suna-occupied house, completely exhausted. She'd been in a Chuunin exams with a lot less emotional baggage than the one her friends had competed in the first time, but it seemed like the Genin from Sand were living in a completely different world. They were excited to meet the entrants from other villages and train with them. They were having the time of their lives, and Kaida was barely keeping up.

Gaara seemed amused by her attempts to keep up with the nine young ninja, which set Kaida even more on edge. It was like being evaluated in a test, and she was determined not to fail. The other three Jonin who had accompanied the group had gone out to lunch that day and then gotten 'distracted' and didn't come back until after dinner time.

"They're worse than Kakashi… At least he accepts that we know he's lying." The three Suna girls Kaida shared the room with were already asleep so she was allowed to talk to herself without having to explain.

--

Ino was testing five people for the epidemic, which had somehow escaped being named either time it had appeared, and so far two of them definitely didn't have it. The other three though… Two of them were ninja, but the blonde medic actually knew the civilian best out of the three. He owned the grocery next to her family's flower shop.

Sakura was in the room over, talking with Lee as she mixed another strain of possible cure. Hinata was on crowd control, making sure anyone who might have caught the epidemic came to Ino, but no one else found out what they might have. Mass panic was not what anybody needed.

Hinata entered the room and Ino pointed at the two semi-healthy patients. "Normal fevers, both of them." They were both civilians, the sister of a ninja and a carpenter. The young girl was much sicker than the older man; Ino was actually wondering why he hadn't just taken an Aspirin and a nap instead of coming to the hospital.

He had shifty eyes and Ino was all too happy to hand him over to Hinata and get him out of the room.

He didn't stay in the hospital for very long, he'd been paranoid about fevers since his twin brother died from the epidemic, and the nurses were used to giving him fake shots and sending him home. He wasn't Konoha's nuttiest, but he was one of the smarter crazies. He had figured out what he'd been being tested for, thanks to the paranoia.

The death of his twin had left him with a craving for _something _to blame. He'd been blaming Tsunade for not fixing it quickly enough and having to rely on a little girl, but now…

He'd put a couple pieces together and figured out a new culprit.

--

The next day was better for Kaida. The sensei's' were back, which meant she had more people to guard and herd around, but more people who would actually listen. She got them all settled at a large table in a restaurant and went to get the waiter's attention before they ran off again when she heard muttered talking.

It was the venom in their voices that stopped her. Their eyes snuck towards the Suna group just to snap back to each other. You didn't have to be a ninja to know they were gossiping about the foreigners and that it wasn't pretty. Kaida was in plain sight but they didn't seem to notice she had stopped.

"Foreigners, bah. They betrayed us once and they'll do it again."

"I heard at the building site that they might be spreading the epidemic. Makes sense."

"Yeah… They weren't here when the epidemic came around the first time, to keep away suspicion, but that didn't work, did it? So they build up our trust again and this time the Kazekage himself is here to finish the job. They had three or four of our ninja with them before, didn't they? Now they've only got one—bet the others were already poisoned with the 'epidemic.'"

Kaida was rooted to the spot, but she started to think about what to do as the two men settled into random and general insults about foreigners.

She went to the table and grabbed the nearest arm she reached, which turned out to be Gaara's. She pulled up on it, looking at the rest of the group, stomach squeezing in terror that _anyone_ could think like that, but she knew that she'd get mad soon enough and she'd better tell Sakura before that. "Come on, we need to make a trip to the hospital, then we'll go to Ichiraku's. It's better than here even if there are only five stools."

It was a reverse of what usually happened—the Genin stood up in slightly scared obedience while the older ninja stared at her in unmoving confusion. The brunette made an effort to smile. "Nothing's wrong, I just really need to talk to Sakura and I can't just leave you here. So we're changing our plans a little."

That got them to all get up and follow her. Kaida's feeling were all beginning to mash together and she had to stop herself from breaking into a run to reach the hospital. When they got there, she left them in the waiting area and went over to the stairs. When she was out of their sight and didn't have to be calm and collected anymore, she broke into a run and felt out Sakura's chakra presence so she wouldn't have to ask for directions.

Sensing chakra was a ninja skill that was horribly over-rated. It only worked from within a mile and only then if you knew what you were doing, and it took a larger drain out a person's chakra then something that small should. Chasing a moving target by following their chakra presence wouldn't work very well, but Kaida just needed to know where Sakura was.

She reached the room and was annoyed to see Lee there. He and Gaara were strange friends, but as far as Lee was concerned they _were_ friends, so he shouldn't hear this. "Sakura, can I talk to you? Right now?"

Sakura set her work down and left the room, pulling Kaida into the next room over, which was empty. "What is it?"

"I was at a restaurant with the people from Suna and when I passed by a table I heard some people saying that they think Gaara and rest of Suna made the epidemic and they're spreading it!"

Sakura swore under her breath but they both knew there wasn't much they could do about rumors. In the end Kaida went back to her charges and Sakura to her work with just an agreement to keep the Sunese ninja in the dark and have a meeting with the other three girls and maybe some of the guys that evening.

One of the Jounin gave her a weird look when Kaida got back, but she smiled it off. "I'm going to talk to her this evening, but right now I'm really hungry for some ramen!" That got the younger ninjas' attention and they headed off without any more questions.

But Kaida could feel a couple pairs of eyes boring into her skull, and one of them was three times as intense as the others: Gaara.

--

Sakura placed the needle a few hairs' length away from Lee's skin before sticking in his arm. He didn't so much as twitch as he was injected with what she really hoped was a cure.

As she pulled the needle out of his arm Lee started to ask if he would have to go back to his hospital bed. Lee seemed as healthy as usual, despite his high fever and the couple sores that had appeared on his skin. He was wearing a green hospital gown that Gai had somehow found for him, which made him seem even more like his usual self. As he laid down in the bed and waited for his daily visit from his sensei, Sakura went to take the 'recipe' for the cure to Tsunade. They would have to see if it really worked on Lee, but this way if it did they would have more as soon as they needed it.

The pinkette nearly ran into Sasuke. He gave her a weird look and she gave him a large grin. "I'm on my way to meet up with the girls about something serious. Want to come?"

Another weird look. "If it's that serious why are you so cheery about it and inviting me?"

"Just come on."

--

Kaida finished telling the people gathered about the guys in the restaurant. Tenten and Neji had gotten back all of five minutes ago, so to get Tenten they had to bring Neji. Sakura had decided Naruto needed to be in on this, and Naruto had somehow managed to get Sai to come. That meant that everyone ever on a team under Kakashi was present, along with the ANBU squad and Neji.

There was a moment of silence and then Naruto stood up from the table in the staff lounge of the hospital where they were having this meeting. "Who were those jerks?!"

Kaida was beginning to realize how things went with the whole group. Someone said something shocking, Naruto reacted first, and someone else backed him up or tried to hold him down depending on his reaction.

Sakura was currently trying to hold him down. "Don't rush off on them, they're just villagers who heard a bad rumor and decided to believe it! Idiot!!"

Sasuke watched the two of them grapple and spoke calmly, "We're going to have to tell Gaara soon."

Sai seemed to agree, which was unexpected but welcome, "Not much more to do than that."

Kaida groaned.

--

As she went up the stairs to the rooms, Kaida decided to wait to tell Gaara till the next morning, but just as she decided that, a voice stopped her. "What took so long?"

_He does this on purpose._

"Actually I need to talk to you about that… The epidemic from about five years ago is back, and Sakura might have healed it, but… Somebody spread a rumor that the disease might be from Suna… and that you might have done it on purpose." There was no comfortable way to tell someone they were being blamed for the epidemic that tried to kill off a village and then came back to try again.

--

Me: OH… Don't kill me.

I know I'm insanely late and the only thing I can say is I've been busy and interrupted every time I try and write.

Meryl: She owns nothing. No car, no Naruto, no quiet space to work…

Me: Thanks.

Gael: I WOULD LIKE TO TELL YOU THAT I AM STILL IN THIS SUIT!!

Meryl: Wow. Next time: Gaara's reaction, and how they fight gossip. Evil ideas and maybe some fluff… We shall see!

Me: I promise it'll be sooner this time!!


	8. 7 Not Technically

**Strength Can't Be Measured**

**Chapter Seven: Not Technically**

--

Kaida was a _little_ nervous to be telling the _Kazekage_ that somebody thought he wanted the entire village dead. Her anxiety was only added to by the fact that the redhead in question _wasn't reacting at all._

Or so she thought until he moved his head, putting his face in better light than before and she saw the raw anger surging through his eyes. She took a step backwards on reflex, eyes huge. He didn't seem like the kind of guy to shoot the messenger, but she had heard stories from Sakura about how he'd mellowed out, and what he was like before that.

She was about to say something when he did. "Does your Hokage know?"

"What? Oh—yeah, Sakura will have told her."

"I will need to speak with her tomorrow morning, so you will have to supervise the Genin training." And he turned and went up the rest of the stairs, shutting the door behind him as he entered his room. Kaida stood on the stairs for a couple minutes, trying to figure out what just happened.

--

Sakura couldn't sleep, so Sasuke, who slept on the coach and could therefore hear everything that went on in the kitchen, couldn't sleep either. Sakura believed whole-heartedly that drinking some hot chocolate and having some food were the way to get your mind off whatever it was that was keeping you up. Sasuke was impressed by her transformation from the little girl who obsessed over her diet until she mentioned that it only worked because her brain was able to focus on freaking out about what the extra calories could do to her body.

He kept his opinions on a tighter leash after that. She was halfway through her glass of hot chocolate before she started feeling drowsy, but it wasn't enough to make her want to go to bed.

Sasuke broke the silence, "What really happened when they left to find me? They would all talk about the epidemic and even Hyuuga and Sai seemed genuinely worried about it. How'd you get rid of it?"

"I don't really know." Sakura ran her hand through her bright hair, sighing. "I mean, I tried out so many antidotes and then one just _worked._ Then Tsunade, Shizune and Ino were cheering and making more antidote and everything happened really quickly. I never really grasped it, even when I was alone with Kakashi and he was smiling from his hospital bed, telling me I'd done it. Everybody gave me credit for the cure, but it was over too quickly for me to accept. I think there were just too many people involved."

Sasuke snorted. "That's how I used to feel about the massacre. All of a sudden, everyone was gone. Then I found some things in the compound that should have made me think twice about my family, but really just cemented my rage against Itachi. Maybe when it turns out Lee is cured after about two tries on your part, you'll accept it."

Sakura blinked, and watched Sasuke calmly adjust his blankets. "That was surprisingly sweet, Sasuke."

He smirked to himself and Sakura put her dishes into the sink. As she passed the couch on the way to her room, she thought about saying something. Smiling to herself, Sakura decided not to say anything. The relationship between herself and Sasuke was back to what it had been before the Forest of Death, only it expanded farther than it used to. They were completely comfortable around each other, and Sakura didn't want to try and put that into words.

--

"You did it Sakura. Again." Sakura was welcomed into Lee's hospital room by those words. Lee was pulling on a t-shirt, as he'd been forbidden from wearing spandex until his sores were all completely gone. Tsunade was standing by his now empty bed, smiling at the surprised Sakura.

Sasuke's words flowed through her head. "I… made the cure?"

"Yes, my beauty! You have successfully saved my life yet another time!" Lee gave her his signature grin and thumbs up, before turning to Tsunade. "I will be back tomorrow for a check-up!"

As he started to leave the room, Tsunade yelled precautions after him, "Don't train! Who knows what sweat'll do to those sores! And no spandex!"

They didn't know if he'd heard or not, so Tsunade just sighed and turned back to Sakura. "Good job, his fever is entirely gone and the sores were almost visibly shrinking. I wish I could promote you for this, but you've reached the top. Nowhere left to go from here, except my job, but I think that's taken…" She gave Sakura a conspiratory smile before moving towards the door. "Now I've got to go do paperwork, or else I'll be doing it over a hospital bed like a couple years ago."

Sakura was alone in the hospital room, and she fell into the bedside chair, feeling slightly hysterical. "I did it. Ino was just doing what I told her and Tsunade was on the other side of the hospital! I actually cured it on my own…" She gave a high laugh before standing up. "I think I'll go find Sasuke and get a late breakfast."

--

"I think the elders might be being possessed by an enemy."

Tenten found herself actually laughing at something Neji had said. It was an unusual occurrence, and he seemed rather uncomfortable. She managed to say, "We should have warned you: ever since Hinata joined the ANBU, the elders have been a bit…" She didn't know how to describe it, so she moved her pointer finger in a circle around her ear.

"They were almost… polite. But then they told me to be a little nicer to the door."

Tenten snorted, "According to Hina, her dad is the only half-sane one left, and he's trying to get it so that if she becomes clan head, she'll have the power to boot the rest of them out of any power." Seeing his shocked expression, she added, "Of course, Hinata doesn't know if she wants to be clan head. Kind of a thankless job, and it'd be hard for Hinata to do—"

"What about Hinata?" Tenten looked behind her to see Naruto and Hinata coming up behind them.

"What're you two doing?"

Naruto beamed and gave Neji a triumphant look. "Hinata's going to help me get ready for the Chuunin exams tomorrow! And I heard Ibiki's still doing the first part, so I know what to expect this time!"

Neji rolled his eyes, but Tenten grinned. "Good for you Naruto. What're you doing about a team?"

"Tsunade's finding me something. What're you two doing, anyway?"

Tenten shrugged, "Going to train. Tsunade hasn't told us to go back to guarding the Suna guests, so I'm hanging out until tomorrow, when we were all supposed to do it again."

Hinata gave her a small grin, "Not technically disobeying orders."

"Exactly. And Kaida can handle Gaara. Unless I just jinxed it…"

--

Kaida was watching the Suna Genin practice and was itching to practice her own jutsu. But since they were from another village and she was ANBU, she wasn't supposed to 'reveal her techniques.' The upside was that to look like less of a threat to anyone who might try and attack the foreigners (since she was their sole Leaf protector now Tsunade had told her to take every advantage possible), she had switched out of her ANBU gear for a typical Jounin/Chuunin get-up.

All of her random thoughts flew out of her head when Gaara appeared. Right behind her. Squashing the urge to jump, she turned around. "Don't do that, it makes it hard to be dignified in front of the others." Kaida was having a hard time balancing watching a bunch of young ninja and doing it while their sensei (who were far older than her, going off appearances) were watching.

Normally she would have had to explain her comment, but Gaara just nodded slowly.

--

Me: I'm not even going to tell you how long it was. I know it's been two months but this story kind of annoyed me… But then I re-read it earlier today and I actually like it! So expect more updates, 'specially since its break and stuff… For now, PLEASE accept this peace offering and don't kill me…

Gael: No own-y.

Meryl: Next time: the Chuunin exams!


	9. 8 Chuunin Exams

**Strength Can't Be Measured**

**Chapter Eight: Chuunin Exams**

--

Naruto and Hinata were walking next to each other, barely an inch of space between them, which shrunk and Naruto talked with his hands. Their heads were bent in, and they seemed to be deep in conversation.

If Tenten hadn't known they were discussing their sparring from yesterday, she would have done exactly what Ino had done: grab something and start celebrating. Since the thing Ino grabbed was Tenten's arm though, she knew to put her hand over the blonde's mouth as their friends approached. Ino sent her a shocked look, but Naruto and Hinata reached them before Tenten could explain anything.

"Umm… Tenten? Why are you gagging Ino with your hand?" Naruto tilted his head to the side.

Tenten didn't release Ino's mouth until after she'd explained, "We were talking about something private and when you guys came up I didn't want you to hear anything. How was sparring yesterday?"

Ino gave the brunette ANBU a you-will-explain-this-to-me-later look, and Hinata reluctantly moved to stand by the two of them as Naruto launched into a detailed explanation about how he was ready to face anybody that tried to use close-range combat.

Finally, he noticed the clock on the front of the building where the first part of the exam would take place. With a loud curse, Naruto started sprinting towards the door, yelling a goodbye over his shoulder as he went. Hinata giggled, and Ino turned on her teammates.

"What is going on?!"

Tenten sighed, "Naruto and Hinata were training yesterday, and that's what they were talking about on the way here. When you saw them, I knew you'd think they were coming from a date or something, so I had to stop you from saying anything. Hinata _has_ to tell Naruto how she feels on her own, without help from any of us."

Hinata turned bright red, and Ino's mouth fell open. "When did you get so much good relationship advice?!"

"Listening to you and Sakura go on about it," Tenten told her with a cheeky grin.

Just then, Sakura came up, putting on her ANBU mask before looking at the other three. "What are you guys standing there for? Kaida'll be prickly enough as it is; you want to be late on top of everything else?"

Tenten and Hinata fastened their masks on, but Ino threw her head back for a few seconds before doing the same. "Why do we have to do this, Gaara doesn't really need guards until the third part of the exams, and that won't be for a while…"

They had walked up to Gaara and Kaida, who were waiting with the Sand Jounin where they had sent their charges to face Ibiki. Sakura shuddered at the thought, remembering what she'd gone through during her first test. Mostly worrying about Naruto while she tried to answer the problems, cheaters getting called out and sent home all around her.

The Sunese Jounin left soon, to get "de-briefed" by Inuzuka Tsume about the second part of the exam, as she had taken over when Anko got bored when it was clear no group would be as interesting as the one most of Sakura's ANBU team had been in.

_At least the second exam might not be as deadly as the Forest of Death… Then again, it is Kiba's mother, so maybe not._ Sakura thought idly as the followed Gaara away from the building. She showed away that conversation starter for later, because she wanted to compare notes with someone else about Inuzuka vs Mitarashi for the exams.

She held back a snigger as she remembered who else was a part of the exams this year. She also had to stop herself from sneaking a glance at Tenten, because Ibiki had forced Neji to be one of his cheater-catchers. She really pitied the kids, because they didn't stand a chance of cheating against Neji's eyes.

_Although, now that I think about it, he's probably changed his test, so people coming back don't know what to expect. Either way, with Neji and Ibiki around they'll have to be on their toes._

--

It was time for the third and final round of the Chuunin exams, and Tenten was feeling optimistic. So far, Gaara had required so little protection (because, honestly, he was Gaara) that they'd been able to split up following him around into shifts. Sakura was able to go to the hospital, and she got to train with Neji and Lee.

Kaida and Hinata would train when they weren't guarding the Kazekage as well. Hinata had agreed to train with Naruto before the fights, since there hadn't been any preliminaries and he had free time, and Kaida had happily given in to the Sunese girls' requests for being able to claim they'd trained with a Konoha ANBU.

Ino wouldn't tell them what she'd done with Hinather spare time, but Tenten had figured out a long time ago that when it came to Ino, it wasn't as big a deal as she made it seem. She was probably shopping, or napping.

They were stationed in a semi circle around Gaara's chair on the open balcony where he sat next to Tsunade, who had two more ANBU guards of her own.

The order of the fights was posted on a board at the back of the Kage area, and Naruto was up first, against a Genin from Mist.

Ino sighed through her mask, expecting that all that would happen during the day was standing behind chairs and trying to stay alive despite the boredom. Since Naruto was first, there would be a large gap between any matches she actually cared about.

Sure enough, Naruto's match was a quick one. Ino was mentally yelling at Tsunade for making him take the tests instead of just promoting him. The poor Genin hadn't had a chance, and the rest of them were looking just as hopeless. Of course, they still had a chance of being made Chuunin, so the blonde didn't really feel sorry for them.

The next match was one of the kunoichi from Suna against a kunoichi from Konoha. Ino wasn't sure who to root for, but it was obvious from the occasional finger twitch from Kaida that the brunette was wishing she could cheer for the girl from Suna.

Ino made a mental note to tell Tsunade they were never being ANBU during a contest again. It would have been _so_ much more fun if they could have cheered or talked to each other.

--

"Look at them. Heh. They have no idea what's coming."

"Sad, but it makes it easier for us."

"Hey, stop talking, it's time to move."

--

Me: Yes, rather bad ending, but I promise another chappie soon-ish.

Meryl: We don't own anything, please don't sue us, that would kill my plan for the week…

Gael: Stay tuned for next chapter: It'll pretty much explain the end of _this_ chapter!

Me: Erm, yeah, just review…


	10. 9 Battle for Sasuke

**Strength Can't Be Measured**

**Chapter Nine: Battle for Sasuke**

--

Kaida was starting to tilt onto one foot, and she knew that Shizune would notice her lack of being perfectly up straight soon enough, but she didn't want to put any weight on her left foot for a couple minutes. She was about to switch feet and give her right foot a break when she saw a flash of light on top of the roof of the stands on the other side of the arena.

Tenten tensed up next to her, so Kaida knew that the brunettes of the group, at least, knew that something was about to go wrong. Having heard the story of her teammates' first Chuunin exams, she couldn't help but think, _Again…_

Sakura moved her hands behind her back, so that they were hidden from the side of the arena that the signal had come from, and stuck out three fingers with her right hand. Kaida took a deep breath and stood on squarely on both feet, waiting for the next signal.

It came, but instead of two flashes, there was only one and the beginning of the second. _They're already here,_ Kaida realized. _If the sentry hadn't seen him as early as he did we'd have been waiting for the second signal until it was too late._ She felt a surge of gratitude for the sentry, who was probably dead, but by that time her team was moving towards the unknown enemy, alerting everyone in the stadium that something was off.

Sakura was shouting quick instructions, since they were the first to react. The Jounin proctoring the exams had stopped the fight and was looking up, watching. "See who it is, and then get back to Gaara and Tsunade! No engaging them until they're safe!" Sakura finished as they reached the spot, only to see three people standing over a dead Chuunin.

There were three of them. A female with vivid red hair, a lanky male with white hair, and another male that seemed younger with spiky pale-blonde hair.

"They know we're here, now what?" The lanky one looked at the female, seeming bored.

She glared at him through square-framed glasses, "Fight them, stupid!"

"Karin?! What are you doing here?!"

Sakura whirled around to see that Sasuke had arrived with Naruto and a few of the other boys. Sai wasn't there yet, but Sakura was distracted by the fact that Sasuke knew this girl.

Karin's shoulders sagged, and she seemed to melt before Sasuke's surprised gaze. "Sasuke! Good, I knew you'd be here! We've come to get you, so that we can go back to being together and looking for Itachi! And of course we'll make Konoha pay for taking you, that's what the reinforcements are f—"

As Naruto cut her off with a demand to know what was going on, it hit Sakura that this was Sasuke's team, the ones he'd been with that last time she'd seen him before running into him and Naruto in Suna. She looked at the last Konoha Uchiha, suddenly feeling very afraid that he would leave them again. Leave her again.

But Ino grabbed her arm and started to pull her away from the scene. When Sakura refused to budge, Ino reminded her of her own rules, "Tiger—the Kage! Come on!!"

That was when Sakura allowed her team to drag her back to her duty, but she looked back at her other team as they left, feeling horribly torn.

Karin had spoken true, though; there were Sound nin everywhere, having been persuaded by Sasuke's old team to get their revenge on Konoha and the man who killed Orochimaru. There were twice as many of them as when they attacked five years ago, so they didn't need any allies to help them attack the village.

When they reached Tsunade and Gaara, they had already beaten the few Sound ninja who had come near them, and three Sand Jounin were helping Shizune and Kakashi to herd them off the balcony. Sakura moved towards the group when Ino grabbed her arm again.

"Give me your mask!" When she had it, she attached it to her belt where her own sometimes hung and let go of the pinkette's arm. "I'm usurping you, so go help somebody else. We got this!"

Sakura was shocked for a second, but her face broke into a grin that matched her best friend's under the mask. She looked at the other three, her eyes looking at each of them and settling on Hinata. "Take your mask off too, Hina. I'll need you to watch my back."

Hinata gave her mask to Tenten, and they turned back and ran towards the other fight, where things were quickly getting nasty. Tenten looked at Ino, but didn't say anything other than, "Now what?"

"Get these guys on their way back to the Hokage Tower and then we can go help out, too."

--

Naruto was sizing up the three invaders while Sasuke spent a minute deciding what he wanted to do. Stay with Konoha or go back with the other people? Naruto refused to admit that it was a hard choice, and he was confident he could deal with whichever one of the weirdoes decided to attack him when Sasuke made the smart choice.

That was when Sakura and Hinata re-appeared behind him. The blond was a little surprised to see them without their masks, but realized very quickly that Sakura had called the redhead girl, and they both spared time from looking at Sasuke to glare at each other.

He turned to Hinata, "What are you doing, I thought you had something else to do?"

"Ino practically forced us to come back," Hinata said, not looking away from the five people in front of them.

Sakura looked at Sasuke one last time before whipping out a kunai and throwing it at Karin. The three definite members of Team Snake all jumped into action, heading in three different directions after their redheaded temporary leader made it clear she didn't want any help with the pink-haired girl. A group of about three Chuunin moved in front of Jugo, and Naruto and Hinata intercepted Suigetsu.

Sasuke seemed paralyzed, which Naruto made a mental note to tease him about once the wanna-bes were gone. Karin broke the silence by looking Sakura, who had been edging in front of Sasuke unconsciously, up and down.

She sneered, "Come on, Sasuke. She's just a weak little girl who will never help you destroy Itachi. Her chakra level is barely over any of the other losers here, and she doesn't have any special jutsu. She couldn't help you do anyth—"

Karin was cut off by Sakura snapping. She ran forward and pulled her fist back, ready to completely destroy the sneering redhead's face. Karin had the sense to dodge, but the fight had started. Suigetsu moved towards Karin and Sakura, who were having a purely physical fight so far, but nearly ran into the two Chuunin that had stepped in front of him.

Hinata had instinctively moved when Sakura did, and when she realized Sakura wasn't going to accept help, she swerved and struck out with her Gentle Fist towards Jugo. Like his teammates, he was prepared enough to do dodge, and Hinata was forced to pivot on her left foot to avoid leaving her back open.

Naruto turned out to be the only one left watching the fight blossoms, except for Sasuke. The loud blond glanced at his best friend and tried to think of something to say, when he looked back at the fight and saw Jugo fighting Hinata. Jugo, though not a long-range fighter, was beginning to discover and expose Hinata's blind spot. Naruto's blue eyes narrowed, and Sasuke saw himself get forgotten as the other boy created four clones and charged Jugo with his usual subtlety.

Sasuke frowned, and stayed where he was, still not sure of what to do. He had rediscovered his love for his teammates, who had never given up on him. But Itachi was alive. Nothing Naruto had said when they'd been holed up in the mountains waiting for the probation to be up had made Sasuke forget his brother.

As he watched, though, Sasuke saw Suigetsu defeat the Chuunin, running them through with his sword. But instead of putting the sword away, Suigetsu turned towards Karin and Sakura's destructive fight (which had gotten worse as ninjutsu was used), and Sasuke realized that neither Karin nor Sakura would see him coming.

With the speed he'd learned from Rock Lee, Sasuke instinctively threw himself in front of Suigetsu, the Sharingan whirling in his narrowed eyes. Suigetsu seemed surprised, and he glanced past Sasuke to see that the girls had noticed them. He looked back at Sasuke, eyes narrowed.

"What are you doing? Get out of the way so I don't have to fight you and make Karin even madder than she is."

Sasuke shifted his feet slightly, preparing a fireball jutsu to catch Suigetsu and his sword off-guard. "No. I'm making a choice, and this time I'm choosing Konoha."

He took a deep breath and signed quickly, blowing out the fireball at his old teammate and new enemy.

--

Me: Yeah… Sorry for the (latest) cliffie, but I'll have the new chappie up SOON! I finally got around to writing out what'll happen for the rest of the story. Next chapter will be LONG, I promise.

Meryl: No ownie. We're just dreamers, not creative owners of things.

Gael: Next chapter will continue the fight… And it'll be long, and there will be romance!


	11. 10 The Fight

**Strength Can't Be Measured**

**Chapter Ten: The Fight**

--

Tsunade and Gaara were close on Ino's heels as she led the rich and important people down the first flight of stairs to the exit. The others were somewhere in the middle of the herd, or getting pushed on by Kaida and Tenten in the back.

They reached a landing, and Ino was concentrating on turning without losing speed when the Sound nin jumped on her. If she hadn't been wearing her ANBU mask, which was a constant reminder of how a ninja was supposed to act, she would have shoved him off her, and promptly beaten him while yelling at the top of her lungs about _landing_ on her _head_. As it was, she pushed him off and threw several kunai, all without saying anything.

Ino looked around and saw that the ninja hadn't been alone. There were too many enemies clogging the hallway to count, and even though three Kage and three ANBU were there, the close quarters meant that it was easy for quantity to beat quality.

Ino bit back a scream as Tenten narrowly avoided a stab in the back, and started beating her way towards her friend when she saw a flash of white running towards the crowd from the top of the staircase. It wasn't until he started sending bodies flying and she saw his long, brown hair that Ino realized it was Neji, and he was headed straight for Tenten.

Ino smiled a little behind the mask, and turned to do her duty and get in front of Tsunade. Without getting in the blonde bombshell's way, of course.

Tenten was beginning to sweat, and she could feel her hair falling out of its bun and sticking to the back of her neck when the ninja in front of her fell over. One second he had been moving towards her, the next he had fallen over and was lying on the ground while Neji stepped over him.

_Wait—Neji?!_

"Neji, what are you doing here?" He was all but in front of her now, so she pulled out a handful of senbon needles and starting throwing them towards peoples' necks and stomachs. Tenten wanted to pull off her mask and glare at him, but she didn't. She settled for letting him know that she was glaring by saying, "We can handle this. I can handle myself!"

Later she would think she had imagined it, but he turned briefly and met her eye as well as he could through her mask. As he turned back to Jyuuken another foreign ninja, he said in his normal, calm voice, "Nothing could have stopped me from helping you, even if you didn't need my help."

Tenten couldn't help but gasp, but Neji didn't turn around again. She slipped past him and pulled out her katana, burying her confusion for the moment in its quick shining movements.

Kaida saw Neji arrive, and once again wished for their ANBU masks to vanish so that she could see Tenten's face. The Sound ninja had overwhelmed them, but thanks to Neji's Jyuuken and their own skills, there were less than half of them left.

Unfortunately, one of the remaining ninja was one of the best Kaida had ever seen. He was staying far out of Neji's Gentle Fist range, and was very good about dodging all of her own blows. She was beginning to think she'd found a weak spot when he suddenly lunged to the side.

He was even faster than she'd thought, and he barreled through several other people without losing speed. He turned sharply and came rushing back towards her.

Kaida raised her kunai just in time to block, but he suddenly ducked. She had barely realized what he'd when he made contact with her legs, sending her flying into a wall. In an attempt to recover, Kaida pushed herself off the wall and jumped over the ninja before he could get back up. But she was still too stunned to land properly, so she landed harshly on her side.

Her enemy stood over her as she scrambled for her weapons. She felt the rough grips of her stash of kunai just as she felt the tips of another three pierce her leg. Gasping in shock, Kaida didn't wonder that it hadn't been worse, or that no more came to finish her off.

She looked up, and saw that her assailant was wrapped in a body cast of sand. Only his head was left uncovered, and it was swiveled as far as it could to look back at Gaara, who had his hands out and eyebrows pulled down.

But Kaida had read the reports: Gaara's sand wasn't an unconscious control anymore, it was more like a jutsu. And this ninja was too good to be held for very long. Seeing the sand begin to fall from his shoulders, Kaida wrenched the kunai out of her leg and jumped up, running past the crumbling sand-covered man to stand in front of Gaara with all of her remaining kunai in her hands.

He had enough control now to dodge the few she threw at him, she saved the rest. It was just as the sand fell to the ground that Tenten appeared behind the Sound ninja and ran him through with her katana. She spared Kaida a glance, "What are you doing?!"

Kaida was now grateful for the mask. What _had_ she been doing? Looking back, it suddenly seemed sloppy… She threw her kunai at another Sound ninja, satisfied when he fell, revealing one of the dignitaries she'd been ordered to protect in the first place.

She avoided looking at Gaara as Tsunade threw the last enemy against a wall.

Ino sagged a little. And they were supposed to protect this woman? Who would ever dare to say she _needed_ protection?

--

Jugo laughed as Naruto fell, trying desperately to restrain the demon fox. He'd learned from Neji, who had asked how he controlled the huge reserve of chakra in his stomach, that using the power could kill him, or cause him to kill others. Ever since then, Naruto had been fighting a losing battle not to go near the red chakra.

The blond seemed to be having a seizure as he fought the change that came too easily. He was sure that Jugo would try to kill him now, and he knew that he could heal from it. But his survival instincts told him to move.

He used the last of his strength to stumble to his feet. But just as Jugo smirked, sure of his victory over the reluctant Kyuubi host, there was a flash of purples. With two hits of the Gentle Fist to his stomach, and one to his head, Jugo fell in front of Hinata, unconscious.

For good measure, the gentle Hyuuga threw another strike to the boy's heart.

Naruto's mouth fell open in awe as he scrambled to his feet. "_Wow_, Hinata! That was awesome!"

A loud crackling noise behind Hinata stopped her from responding with her usual blush. She whirled around to see Sasuke speed past Suigetsu, left arm covered in lightning. Hinata realized that it wouldn't take another Chidori for Suigetsu to be defeated: with such strength in water jutsu, he had a serious weakness to lightning. He was done.

Sasuke automatically wheeled past the fallen ninja, turning towards where Sakura and Karin still fought. It would have been reminiscent of the pinkette's fight with Ino, as both kunoichi were powerful and equally matched, except for the exceptional level of hatred passing unsaid between the two of them.

Naruto ran to catch up with his best friend. "Umm, teme, you might want to stay out of this battle. Sakura hasn't been that scary-looking since I almost taught Konohamaru…" He trailed off, and his face went pale. He'd almost managed to forget about that.

But the battle didn't last much longer. Despite tiredness, Sakura could still summon her earth-shattering strength, whereas her other attacks, and all of Karin's, were faltering. Sakura landed what she would later call a lucky shot, and Karin fell.

Sakura nearly collapsed before her three friends reached her. Hinata took one look at the pinkette and turned to Naruto and Sasuke. "We need to find Ino and the others, so that Tsunade or Ino can heal her."

Nodding, Sasuke picked Sakura up and the three of them ran in the direction they had last seen the other ANBU members.

--

After getting out of the staircase, they had been attacked again. But now, with more space, it was much easier to defeat their attackers. Ino had just been setting into a rhythm when she heard her name being called from behind her. She turned to see Sasuke, flanked by Naruto and Hinata, carrying Sakura.

With a brief shout to Tenten to cover them, Ino turned and ran to meet them, motioning for Sasuke to put her best friend on the ground. The familiar green glow surrounding her hands, Ino laid one on Sakura's hand and the other on her stomach. She let out a sigh of relief almost immediately. "She's just tired. She'll be fine once I—"

"INO!"

Tenten turned from the three enemies who had rushed her at the same time to see a forth headed for the group around Sakura. Sasuke and Naruto automatically jumped in front of their old teammate, and Hinata and Ino jumped to get the ninja. He held a kunai in each hand, and swung them wildly as Hinata crouched to Jyuuken his legs and Ino jumped to kick him in the head. But one of his swings caught Ino in the underside of her outstretched thigh, and she flew spinning to the side.

Hinata's hits connected, and the nin fell as she continued to pound him. The stomach, the chest, the head. She was certain he wasn't coming back up before she ran to Ino, who was swearing violently under her breath as she held her leg.

Everything quieted down rather suddenly, and both Ino and Hinata realized the battle was over. Ino slumped back with relief, and Hinata sighed.

"Come on, we'll take you to the hospital with Sakura."

Ino smirked. "Great. The hospital will be in chaos, and two of its healers need healing."

Tenten looked between the two of them as she walked up, putting a handful of weapons back in their proper places. "Or we could ask Tsunade, while she's here."

"Or that," Ino grinned. "It would be nice to get first-class treatment."

--

Tossing in her hospital bed, Sakura looked over at her temporary roommate. Both pinkette and blonde had been allowed to help treat the rest of the village only if they stayed the night under observation. And now they were both hiding exhaustion as they tried to fall asleep.

Ino's voice cut through the darkness, "Well, that wasn't too bad of an outcome. We're all OK. And tomorrow we get to help repair everything."

"Fun." Sakura shifted a little, and felt as if she'd finally found a comfortable position.

A sigh came from Ino's side of the room. "I do miss my bed, though."

Sakura giggled, "I know. Is an extra pillow too much to ask?" They both didn't answer, and the pinkette paused. "We probably shouldn't insult the place where we work."

"Probably not."

They fell back into silence and Sakura closed her eyes, resorting to her mother's old trick of counting the things she wanted to do the next day. _Keep healing everyone I guess; doing rounds on the more seriously injured patients; getting lunch with the girls… I think I'll have that curry Tenten was raving about last time… It sounded like something I'd like…_

Her body relaxed, and she fell into sleep.

--

Me: And… I'll stop there. Forgive me for the long wait. I don't really have an excuse. Please believe me when I say the next (and probably last) chappie will come VERY soon!

Gael: Honest. She's got a whole nother day of doing nothing, since we're back from our Spring Break trip but Spring Break isn't over yet. Anyway, we don't own anything, so there's nothing you can do about it if we ARE late again.

Meryl: That's not promising… Anyway: next time, there will be much awkwardness, resulting in… That's right! As much romance as we can shove down your throat in one sitting! And a hopefully humorous ending… Meh, we'll try.

Gael: REVIEW!! NOW!!


	12. 11 Finale

**Strength Can't Be Measured**

**Chapter Eleven: Finale**

--

Kaida felt that she should say goodbye to him, too. She'd said her farewells to the house they'd stayed in, the younger girls she'd shared a room with. The boy she'd barely talked to individually had also received an emotional goodbye. And all their sensei, even though it was still uncomfortable. The new Chuunin, along with their teammates who were coming back in six months to try again and their teachers, were heading back to Suna. And, of course, their Kazekage was heading back too.

She felt that after telling him that his village was being blamed for their disease (Tsunade had sworn finding the real culprit, if one existed, could be their team's next mission, and Shizune was preparing an excuse to clear Suna until they finished), herding him all over Konoha as if he was another Genin and trying to protect him from a ninja who could have beaten her, that she owed Gaara a 'goodbye.'

Not to mention he was a political ally to her village and she still had to put up a good name for her neighbors.

So after she'd gathered her things that had somehow collected in and around her bed and drawers, Kaida went to the only room in the small house with one occupant. Now that she had decided to do it, knocking on the door was a reflex for her. She'd made up her mind, so there was no more need for hesitation.

Gaara answered quickly, and Kaida purposefully avoided wondering if his expression changed at all when he saw it was her.

Before she could blurt out her goodbye, he silently motion for her to come in before disappearing from the doorway. The brunette sighed and entered, closing the door behind her to shut out the noise of the young teenagers bouncing off the walls.

It was up to her to start the conversation. "It's weird, but I'm actually going to miss that racket. I have an older sister, and she moved out as soon as possible, so our apartment was just suddenly silent. It's a weird feeling…" She realized she was already off topic and cleared her throat. "Anyway, I just wanted to say goodbye. The respect they all feel towards you made it easy to keep them under control, even when I was on my own. I don't think that will ever happen again."

He nodded, and Kaida figured she was dismissed. As she started to turn to go, she crossed off goodbyes on her mental To Do List. But she didn't get even turned around before Gaara's voice broke the heavy silence. It seemed as if he asked the question before her could stop himself or think about it, which was something Kaida hadn't expect to ever happen.

"Why did you get in front of me, instead of just taking that guy down?"

She shrugged, completely unsure how to answer. "I didn't know if I could take him down, and I didn't want to see you get hurt after you saved my life. I didn't really want to see you get hurt at all, really." The last part would have been enough to make her blush if she'd heard it instead of saying it, but the brunette had meant it to just be the truth. Gaara's surprised expression made her suddenly rewind and listen to her words again, and she turned bright red. "I mean…"

She struggled to find something to say when he started laughing. It was a soft, quiet laugh, but it couldn't be qualified as a giggle or chuckle, so it was a laugh nonetheless.

Instead of letting the Konoha ANBU say anymore, the Suna Kazkage just nodded his head. "Don't worry; I know."

--

Tenten crossed her arms as Neji rolled his eyes. They had fallen back into a pattern of sparring with each other very quickly, and that should have gone undisturbed by the attack, but she had deliberately broken that pattern to get her point across. First, she'd woken up an hour early, and gone to train on her own, then shown up a half hour late to their sparring match. Now she was refusing to start until he heard her out.

He'd finally agreed when she threatened to report to Tsunade that he'd been wounded. Whether or not he had been would be irrelevant: Tsunade would have him brought forcefully to the hospital, where he would be forced to wait for a couple hours until someone could finally check him over.

Everyone had been banged up by the battles, but Tenten knew she could turn his bruises into a much bigger deal than the next guys, merely by shouting words Sakura and Ino threw around.

Neji sat down cross-legged in the short grass of their clearing, "Alright, what do you need to say?"

"You don't always have to protect me!" He raised an eyebrow and she got defensive. "That's what I'm talking about: you think I'm sort of stupid child who needs to be looked after and then have everything explained afterwards. I'm an ANBU, Neji, and I scored almost as high as Sakura on the series of IQ tests they gave us before we were fully initiated."

He rolled his eyes again; seemingly unaware of the negative effect it had on her temper. His voice was as calm as always as he said, "I told you: I'm going to be there for you even if you don't need me. Then if you ever do, I'll be there."

"What if I never need you?"

"Then I'll never have to say 'I told you so.'" Both their voices were rising now, and Neji's grew taught with annoyance, while Tenten's dripped of pent-up anger.

Finally, it manifested itself, "I got on fine without you for almost three years! I was here protecting everyone, while you were off lying around and helping Uchiha Sasuke become a 'better person' again!"

He stood up suddenly. "Oh, so you're mad about an assignment I got? Like I could control what Tsunade told me to do!"

They glared at each other for a very long moment before Tenten ripped her eyes away, turning her fiery glance to the ground. "Never mind, let's spar."

"No, I think we've had enough emotional out-letting for today." When Tenten turned her glare back to him, Neji rolled his eyes. "Come on, we'll have an early lunch, and then we'll go to the weapon's shop. I'll buy you some stuff to fix your old kunai." When it came to shopping, Neji knew that Tenten wasn't as easily distracted as other girls. She didn't mind shopping for necessity, but the only times she truly enjoyed herself were when someone else picked up the tab, or weapons were involved.

Neji saw the irresistible offer throw her anger straight out of her brain, and a wide smile took over her face. She grabbed his hand and started pulling him out of the clearing. He had just settled into a bemused smile when she turned around, a wicked grin on her face.

Before he could really respond, Tenten had given him a quick kiss—more like a touch—on the mouth and was haring away from him at top speed, laughing loudly. _Why_ she did these things, he didn't know. But as Neji broke into a jog to follow her, his hand subconsciously reached up to touch his lips.

--

Sakura folded up the last of the hospital sheets and waved absently and Naruto, Hinata, and Sasuke came up. She did notice that Naruto smelled less like ramen than usual, and more like soap. He would be needing Ichiraku's soon.

Both Naruto and Sasuke had been at the hospital for a check-up by Tsunade herself, and Hinata had been trying to find Sakura when she ran into them.

Both Sakura and Hinata were dressed casually, and Naruto wondered briefly if anyone would ever guess they were part of ANBU with their T-shirts and vibrant hair. He decided that they might, as the silver Hyuuga eyes provoked respect from anyone who knew their power, and most of the village had seen Sakura smashing apart trees with their Hokage. Now that he got to thinking about it, Naruto wondered why he'd even been surprised by their new positions when they'd returned.

After Hinata and Sakura had finalized their plans for going back to their ANBU duties the next day (starting with a large breakfast funded by Hinata's father), Sakura's earlier prediction came true. Naruto looked between his two old teammates. "How long are you guys gonna be here? I _need_ ramen!"

Sakura shrugged, "I don't think I'll be out of her that soon."

"No."

Naruto's expression dropped at Sasuke's flat refusal for some guy-bonding. Hinata seemed to take pity on him, and Sakura knew how this would turn out.

"I'll go to Ichiraku's with you, Naruto. I'm sure Sasuke wants to talk to Sakura alone, anyway." Sakura's mouth dropped open at the bold twist to Hinata's statement. Sure, the pinkette and Ino had both openly bet about Hinata's relationship with Naruto, but…

Who knew the sweet girl would ever want to get _vengeance_?

But Naruto's face lit up again, his foxy grin sliding firmly into place as he and Hinata left the other two alone. Sakura groaned, looking at Sasuke with a look that said she couldn't believe they knew those two.

He nodded, shoving his hands in his pockets as Sakura moved to the next empty room. She'd already done her rounds on the patients who were still in the hospital, so all that remained of her shift was cleaning up.

They passed a couple minutes in silence before Sakura decided to bring up the conversation they'd have to have some time. "Sasuke, why did you choose to stay in Konoha? All I saw was that one minute you were standing there, not sure what to do and the next you were fighting Sui… Su… you're teammate who had water jutsu and the huge sword."

"He was going to go attack you, and I… well, I knew what might happen if I chose them, because I chose them last time. I've always been happier here, so I chose Konoha this time."

Sakura opened her mouth to ask another question, but Sasuke cut her off with a wave of his hand. "When I was holed up with Naruto and the other guys, half of them wouldn't shut up about their teammates back in the village, and the other half wouldn't talk about it. They were worried about you. But then we got back, and you were much stronger, and the whole village knew it. I want to learn that strength."

Sakura swallowed, not sure what to say. She finally croaked out, "What strength?"

He gave her the look she had always hated that made her feel like a clueless child. "Your inner strength; the kind that lead you to become a medic, and the kind that had you and Naruto chasing me for years." Sakura saw he had something else to say, but it was hard for him. "I want… to be motivated by something other than hate."

She smiled at him until he finally looked up and met her eye. He gave her a gentle version of his usual smirk in return, and they both felt something finally fall into place between them.

--

Hinata was laughing at something Naruto had told her—complete with wild hand gestures—when Ino appeared next to her stool at Ichiraku's. The blonde seemed ecstatic. "I've got it!"

Hinata turned to face her, "Got what, Ino?"

"That thing I've been looking for—our team's final touch to our uniforms! Friendship braclets!" As Hinata opened her mouth to point out that they'd already shot that idea down a couple months ago, Ino shook her head. "Oh, no. Not just plain, knotted string. These are going to be special. And they'll only be bracelets when we're off duty._ On_ duty, we can use them as hair ties. Admit it: it's a solid idea! We all pull our hair back, and these will be the _best_ hair ties ever! I'm going to go tell Sakura!"

And Ino raced off, seemingly not caring about the dirt that she was kicking up or how it was covering the back of her calves. Hinata took a moment to recover before turning back to Naruto, shaking her head.

But Naruto grinned, "She's interesting. At least she's honest with everyone, though."

_Honest._ The word pounded through Hinata's mind. _I have to be honest._ She gathered her courage and spoke in her calmest voice. "Naruto, I have been wanting to tell you something for a long time… I've admired you since we met in the academy. I think you're strong, and brave, and just being around you makes me feel like I could be better than I am. I… I love you."

The young Hyuuga winced, waiting for Naruto response. Instead, she looked up just in time to see a completely shocked Naruto fall off his stool. As she rushed to see if he was alright, Teuchi leaned over the counter, laughing to himself.

"He fainted!"

--

Me: And there you have it. Rather vague endings, but life does go on, so it's hard to wrap up… I'll be the first to admit this isn't my best work, if I have one, but I feel I should tell you I still like the general idea of this story and all the characters. So this wasn't hard at all to finish. And I'm definitely using Kaida again. XD. Anyway thanks to everyone who've come this far with me! I love, love, LOVE you all!!

Phil: Didn't we tell you this would be up ASAP? HA, TAKE THAT, DOUBTERS!

Meryl: *headpalm* Anyway, if you haven't guessed yet: we no ownie.

Me: Again, thanks for reading, please review! Bye byes!


End file.
